Listening to the radio on Wednesday I heard an interview with ISB and SIS ( the two international schools in Basel btw) and it struck such a wrong cord. SIS has installed two Securitas people to check the incoming and outgoing there thus providing the security the parents of that school are calling for. Apparently, compared to other countries like America, the security standards in swiss schools is lacking. WTF?
I have a kid and let me tell you, it is the nicest thing in the world to know that she can still go to school on her own by foot, play in the school yard and move around freely both at school and in her free time. Its the main reason why I stay in CH. There are way too many countries in the world where this is no longer possible.
What kind of paranoid parents are there that they actually foist Security people onto their kids unnecessarily. Do they want their kids to grow up scared? Are they trying to force us into an insecure lifestyle? Well, all I can say is I am NOT in a hurry to get there.
As being someone who has been in the other end when I was a child, I can tell you that I prefer to have something in place to prevent than nothing at all until it is too late.
I live in a rural area, so I accept things might be different. I just love seeing the kids walking home from school with their satchels on their back, chatting away, waving at car drivers who stop for them as they cross the road. A dream I'd have for my grand-children who are ferried everywhere by car in the UK. Love it too when the kids say to their dad/mum 'going to play at Carlos- back around 6ish' or 'were off to the woods to play. We've got a drink and a sandwich- so don't worry'. Being 20, 30 years BEHIND the times can have its attractions sometimes.
Nil, I am so sorry you had a bad experience. But do we really want to mollycoddle our kids and wrap them in cotton wool (bubblewrap these days) - because some bad things happen once in a blue moon. The dangers of obesity, lack of common sense, responsibility, agility and balance, etc, are far more dangerous for today's kids. Look at peodophilia- a terrible thing I agree - but most is perpetrated by family members and friends, NOT by strangers.
I think this is the key. Without knowing who the kids at these two private schools are, it's impossible to say whether this is in fact an unnecessary precaution. It looks pretty unnecessary for your kid or mine all right, but maybe the ambassador's kid also goes to that school. Maybe a kid of some tinpot dictator or Third World royalty, sent off to Swiss school incognito (don't laugh! It happens .) Maybe one of the families has received a credible death threat, for all you or I know. Maybe there's a messy divorce, and reason to believe the noncustodial parent might attempt to kidnap the children.
Who knows?
Or maybe it is just a bunch of rich American expats, who can afford the fees and are determined to have "school here" be just like "school back home." (An international school is a business, after all, and if that's what enough customers want...)
I don't want it more than you. But my personal experience brang me to think and act differently today. This country as wonderful as it is, is not free psycho or free peodos. And if most abuse on children are commited by a family member, it is not the case for all. One is enough! Abduction may are made from a family member or from an organisation of human traffic, etc.
I don't believe this country has less risks than any other countries around. Not today, not anymore.
I think it's a sad reflection if the school feels the need to employ uniformed security guards. I just wonder what it does for the overall morale of the staff and pupils.
At my son's old Kinderkrippe [daycare] in Basel they installed fingerprint readers on the doors - in the wake of the attack in Belgium a few years back. All the parents had to have their finger prints scanned. I have to say I was not confident about having my fingerprints on a computer system of unknown security.
Well, I know something of the situation at SIS from parents whose kids are there (and I'm an ex-SIS parent too). When they closed down the drug rehab centre near the frauenspital, they actually opened up a new one (or perhaps it was already there and just suddenly became more "popular"?) just down the road from SIS.
Parents were seeing drunks and drug addicts hanging about outside the school and didn't much like it. Probably these people are relatively harmless, but they don't look it, and I believe there was an occasion where someone found their way into the school grounds. And parents were also worried about things like needles in the playground which is at the front of the school. The administration responded to that by getting some security guards. I think that's a reasonable thing don't you? Especially when you have a lot of IT and music equipment that's worth a few bob in the school.
You have to remember that international schools are not the same as the local Swiss schools. Swiss schools are full of Swiss kids who have been living here and walking to school their whole lives. Nobody walks to these international schools because most people live miles away from them. Kindergarten age kids have to be picked up directly at the classroom door by a parent. In fact just like they would be in the UK / US.
I'm not saying that they necessarily need security guards, but I do actually worry about the lack of supervision in Swiss schools. There's nobody in the playground at break for example - nobody to stop fighting, bullying and deal with accidents. And there's a huge potential for kidnapping. OK, it's not happened here, but I fear that this situation will not last forever - even in Switzerland - and I don't want my children to be the first to be kidnapped by a paedo from the playground because nobody was watching them.
Thanks for the explanation! Like the OP, I wouldn't be keen to see this become the norm everywhere... but I can understand if it's in response to a particular situation.
But again.... Was it a month or two ago on this forum someone was talking about a man who tried to grab a little girl out of the school? People here on this forum were going nuts of anxiety about it. At the end nothing happened and I have no idea what happened to the guy.
But should we wait until it happens for good before to take any mesure? I grown up in a school without security gards but we did have some women to look after us outside in the playground during the play time at all time .
We were always supervised in the school playground when I was at primary school (in CH) - by the teachers themselves on a rotation system. This case here is about security guards outside the school, on the way home.
I grieve for the kids who have to live like that, and so happy it is not the situation here. You can't stop everything the kids do because one might be hurt, one day, somewhere. Just like Doctors don't give antibiotics to all kids with a bit of a cold - because in the long run it puts them at much greater risk. And yet, in 1 case in several 100000 (not true statistics) a child tragically dies of meningitis or other complications. It is absolutely tragic, but giving every child antibiotics for minor infections would have worse consequences. Vigilance should attempt to protect without smothering. A very difficult balance, I know.
Ooh nostalgia moment, we had one called Aggie (maybe we made that up?) and she could break up a playground fight in a heart beat. She took no prisoners and belted you harder than the kid you were scrapping with. An old battleaxe with a face like an old leather bag full of spanners - that's what the SIS should get!!
No, I don't think anything actually happened. But I do also think it is more about the school protecting their laptops and kids possessions (these are kids who bring iphones into school remember) from being nicked by the aforementioned "undesirables". I don't think they suspect any physical harm could happen.
only these days battleaxes would get sued in a flash by the same people who insist on security guards ( generalization, please don't take personal offense)
But honestly. I remember watching Little House on the Praire when I was a kid and there was always kids beating on each other, etc etc. Back then it was just a part of growing up. These days......... well, do I need to go on?
More realistic is that the guards were installed by Russian parents. Many rich Russians have serious enemies, kidnapping etc is not unheard of in those circles...