Emergency School Response System Manchester, NH

On Thursday, October 22, 2009, the City of Manchester and the community at large were hit with a devastating tragedy and blow. A local well known and loved mother and friend was gunned down in her home, her father shot, and the gunman (her estranged husband) turned the gun on himself and died.

While this was unfolding, the Manchester Police Department, S.W.A.T. Team, helicopters, and even the mayor were dispatched, which is what one would expect during such a situation. What we don’t expect is that our children will be sitting under their school desks, with their jackets over their heads overhearing other children crying and talking about how they are going to die.

As a child this can be absolutely devastating, traumatic and can affect them for the rest of their lives. After all, they don’t experience these types of things on a daily basis, and most of the time this is a first for them, and many of them don’t know what to think or feel.

As parents, our job is to keep our children safe and free from danger, but the world throws curve balls at us all the time. Some of these situations we can’t be there for. So we rely on those responsible for our children at the time to keep them safe, but tell us of these situations as they happen.

While the Manchester School System kept our children physically safe and free from harm; the parents of these children were who subjected to these circumstances, were not notified of what was going on. There wasn’t even a hint from the schools’ that there was something wrong. Life throws curve-balls at us all the time, such a curve-ball can be an informed one for parents, there is no excuse for unknowns.

Now imagine if as things were unfolding and things weren’t even reported on the news yet, and you didn't know a situation is happening. How would you be prepared to deal with this with your children? If it was reported you could watch the news, listen to the radio, and possibly even call the school to find out. You would then be prepared to deal with the situation with your child when you were able to talk to them.

Information is key to dealing with any situation. The first step when issue's occur is to properly inform parents. This is not happening to date.

There are many communities within the State of New Hampshire that have response systems that either through a pre-recorded message or a personal telephone call; notifies parents about such situations. School closings, emergencies, lock down's, absenteeism, etc. are all reported to those parents.

In the Manchester School District there are currently some school's who don't even report to parent's when their child is absent. Imagine how devastating it would be if you did send you child to school and they never made it. Some school's have no way to notify you. This could delay getting proper help from the Police department if you child is abducted or missing.

The first couple of hours are most important in getting out an Amber Alert and save a childs life.

We as a society stress the power of knowledge and information, why shouldn't parents be informed about what our children are subjected to? Why shouldn't we as parent's know about any issue's regarding our child's school before they are on the evening news?

Many parent's attempted to pull up to their childs' school for the regular 2:30 release and were meet by SWAT. Some parent's couldn't even get within a city block of their child's school. Those parent's couldn't properly gauge the situation as it was unfolding. Some parent's where scared when their children didn't return home from school at the proper time. Many of us parents feared the worst because there was no information. These are our children and we expect to be informed on their well-being, so we don't fear the unknown.

This is why this petition was formed; if you have children in the City of Manchester, or even the State of New Hampshire for that matter, please sign this petition.

We, the undersigned of this petition, request that for the upcoming school year (2010-2011) that the school board/system enact, adopt, adjust for budgeting and utilize an emergency response system for parent notification.