Rogers school officials plan to add security equipment
Posted on Thursday, February 1, 2007
ROGERS - School administrators in Rogers were already planning on adding security equipment at Eastside Elementary School when a child was assaulted there last week.
"It's something we look at all the time," school representative Ashley Kelley said. Additional surveillance equipment and lighting were planned. Now district personnel are considering adding additional fencing as well.
A 10-year-old girl was walking to Eastside at 7 a.m. Jan. 25. She catches a shuttle bus at Eastside to travel to one of the district's other schools. She said a man put his hand over her mouth and dragged her behind a shed, court documents said. The man told her to pull down her pants and put his hand inside her underwear. A boy passing by may have interrupted the attack.
The storage building will probably be moved, Kelley said, as soon as the police investigation is completed.
Earlier this week, Eastside students took a letter home reminding parents that there is no supervision for students at the school before 7: 15 a. m., Kelly said. Teachers aren't required to begin their work day until 7: 30 a. m., but principals and some other staff are there by 7: 15.
Other schools in the district will probably distribute a letter from the central administration with similar information in the future, Kelley said.
The district has offered before-school care in the past, Kelley said, but few students took advantage of the program, and it created transportation problems. This year, the program was not offered.
At each school in the district, counselors talk to students about "stranger danger"as part of the regular curriculum. Counselors are also available to speak to individual students who need help with a specific situation. However, because such sessions are confidential, there is no way to know if counselors have met with individual students about the recent incident, Kelley said.
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