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Student safety plan urged
Lisk-Silva slayings prompt recommendations
Day care may be offered before and after school in Spotsylvania County next year in an attempt to keep students safer.
That is one of several suggestions developed by a School Board safety committee after the abduction and slayings of three county girls last year.
Many of the recommendations call for beefing up extracurricular programs, adding new ones or checking on students as they get home from school.
Among the more innovative is "phone friends," which teams high school "buddies" with younger, latch-key students. Buddies call to make sure the children get home from school safely, and can help with homework.
The program would probably appeal to students wanting to do public-service work, committee members said. They could stay after school and use phones under adult supervision.
"It's a sneaky way of getting kids to stay after school," said committee chairman David White. "I believe that schools are some of the safest places for our children."
All three of the slain girls were abducted from their homes. Sofia Silva was on her front porch before she disappeared, and Kristin and Kati Lisk were evidently abducted soon after they got off their school buses. The slayings are believed to be suspected to be the work of a serial killer, and have not been solved.
"We ought never to forget what happened, but we ought to actively take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again," White said.
The safety committee will present its recommendations during the School Board's meeting Monday night. Day care tops the list.
"It reflects the priority we've heard from the community," said committee member Marilyn Boren.
If the plan is approved, Superintendent Sue Fisher Burgess would start by surveying parents this fall. Pilot programs would then be set up in one or more schools with the most interest. They would be contracted out to private firms.
"It should be run at no cost to the school system," White said.
Fredericksburg school officials are considering offering a similar program at Hugh Mercer Elementary School.
The School Board formed the safety committee last May after the abductions and slayings of the girls. Board members wanted to know what safety programs were--and weren't--available in the area.
Committee members met with cross-section of community leaders to get ideas, then studied existing programs locally and across the state. As a result, they decided to focus on three areas: latch-key children, student assaults and at-risk students.
One of the committee's first efforts was to host a program called "Escape School," which taught children ways to escape if they're abducted. It drew about 900 students and parents.
The School Board has also begun requiring all employees to wear identification badges, hired an additional safety officer to work in the schools and added another assistant principal at each high school.
New suggestions include:
Training volunteers, especially senior citizens, to help in the schools. A number of volunteers are already working with their local Neighborhood Watches to check on students as they get on and off school buses.
Expand after-school tutorial programs.
Ask the county Parks & Recreation Department to offer more after-school programs at the schools.
Promote after-school activities by giving parents brochures that detail offerings.
Get the Rappahannock Area Office on Youth's permission to reproduce and hand out information in its Youth Services Directory.
Encourage participation in summer-school activities.
Conduct additional safety seminars for students and parents, and develop safety-training programs for teachers and administrators.
Conduct a security audit of the schools and offer to do one for other county facilities.
White said the programs may help calm parents' fears.
"I hope we can start to reestablish a sense of safety," he said.
