by: Jenni Vinson
April 1, 2001
As I write this, my prayers are with the teachers, staff and administrators of our highschool who have faithfully served this community and do so now in an exemplary manner as they strive to keep our children safe.
It is also my heart�s hope and prayer that those who have sought to bring this community to a point of fear will not succeed and that they will be caught and brought to justice for recklessly endangering and distrupting the lives of our children and the entire community.
A society is always measured by how well it takes care of it�s children. Alice,
Texas America is a fine community and it was, in fact, this aspect of the city
that drew our family to live here. In this crisis, Alice has proven to have
incredible strength and perserverance in both her adult and young citizens.
That is understandable. However, I do believe that this media blackout attitude
has to be rethought. If a community is not being fed facts by a responsible
media, then it is being fed rumors that churn and grow and take on thier own life
form. It is not good for a community not to know what is happening, particularly
when the matter involves the potential endangerment of our children.
I think all of us abide by the thought: �you may get away with messing with me,
but you will NOT mess with my children!� and we respond protectively. When
you combine this instinct with all the uncertainties of not knowing what is
happening and what to believe as true or not, the situation can get volital as we
saw this week.
So far as I can see, the School District and the Adminsitration have done
everything possible to keep our childlen safe. That has been their number one
priority. I listened to Mrs. Koenning, the principal, explain to a group of
concerned parents that the teachers and staff had the 1700 students evacuated
in a little less than TWO minutes. That is incredible! And that is so comforting to
know. The community should have been aware of this great effort and so many
others like the making and providing of the sack lunches by the cafetria workers
who did so on short notice for the evacuated students.
God forbid this should ever happen again to Alice or any other community, but
there is a lesson to be learned-- the safety of the children comes FIRST and
should be paramount, even to their comfort. I would prefer that my children stand
in the cold rain than that they remain dry and warm but in danger. BUT, the
media and the Adminsitartion should look to develop a method of communicating
with the community a little bit more than was done through this.
There has to be an medium area between irresponsible and responsible sharing
of information in such a crisis situation.
All that aside, I personally do want to extend my gratitude to the many who
watched over my children and guided them to safety day after day. I know the
stress level was high and the children and even some of the parents were rough
at times, but you are ALL heros for showing up to be there for your classes and
for these children even through this, the most trying of times where you were
potentially in harms way.