Educational Security?

My school was broken into for the second time this week. This time, the school was under surveillance, and they caught the robbers. The school already looks like a fortress - metal grates over all the windows, concrete walls, heavy metal doors, and chain-link fence all around. Nevertheless, there have been about 5 break-ins since I started working here 13 months ago. Thieves usually go for computer and other electronic equipment - we lost a VCR two summers ago. Sometimes, like when an Assistant Principal's laptop was stolen just days after she got it, we suspect it's an inside job. Or at the very least, that someone from the school has been talking to the wrong people. In this case, I don't know the details about who did it or what was stolen. Nothing was missing from my room or my immediate colleagues' rooms.

One of our seventh graders was "jumped" on the way home from school yesterday. He was walking alone through a park and was attacked and robbed by some students from another school. He's taking it pretty well, under the circumstances. Suffice to say, my school is not located in a very safe neighborhood. We told the children to walk home in pairs or groups, if they can't take the bus.

Columbia University has started a special school for students of its professors. The school, described in What would teachers do if they had the chance? This., also enrolled 50% of its students from the neighborhood, selected by lottery. It is a sign of the need for more innovative, safe, small schools that over 1700 parents from the neighborhood applied for only 100 spots this year.

Jana, another student-teacher-blogger, mentioned me on her site, Hedgetoad. I really like her site's aesthetic... so much prettier than mine! I just learned how to put titles on my posts today. Maybe in a month or two I'll figure out images!

In response to the question about the "letter order" paragraph below, I don't have a source for it; it was emailed to me and is, I suspect, just one of those forwards. I liked it because although it is very true (you can definitely read the paragraph), I can't imagine anyone thinking that's a good reason to give up proper spelling! Incidentally, I just noticed at least one spelling mistake - one word in that paragraph includes a wrong letter. Anyone else find it?