EDUCATIONALLY SPEAKING -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

I’m mad as hell, and I don’t want to take it anymore. We are bending

to the biggest bullying tactics at school, and we are letting it affect

our lives and our children’s lives. What does a bully want? Power. Power

that he may not otherwise have or deserve, but which he takes through

improper means. He gains his power by not playing by the rules.

The bullying that has been going on at two local campuses in recent

weeks rises to the level of terrorism, which is the ultimate in bullying.

Terrorists use tactics outside of the rules to get power that they

would not otherwise have. They have made the threat of terror the

ultimate hot button, as a not-so-secret weapon to bend the masses away

from their daily routine. They wield their power not so much from the

casualties that some tactics cause. The real power comes from our

response to terrorists.

Unlike political terrorists, I’m not sure that those that terrorized

Newport-Mesa Unified School District campuses had any plan in mind. One

could have been a prank gone awry, and the other could have been from

self-induced terror.

In one instance, a young girl using an elementary school bathroom was

kept in her stall by a man. He could have had the intention of committing

a bad act, or he could have been in there and panicked when she came in,

and kept her in a stall while he thought about what to do. Whether done

on purpose or not, the ultimate resolution is that kids will only have

one bathroom available before school. So, the whole school population

suffers and changes its habits because of this one act.

The second act of terrorism was a bomb threat set for Friday the 13th,

the day before spring break was to begin. (A similar threat caused kids

to stay away from a high school in Santa Barbara County that same day).

Educational dollars were used to hire a security firm to check out the

sewer pipes and lockers for bombs. The police were stationed around

campus that day. Instead of teachers being able to focus on tips for

taking the Stanford 9 tests coming up at the end of the week, they were

told to look for suspicious items and to keep kids calm. The staff all

showed up that day, bomb threat or not.

Even with all of the extra security and precautions, about a third of

the students took the day off. Many of the kids went to the mall or the

beach, where their chance of having something bad happen to them was much

higher, statistically, than it was at school that day. Most of the

students will tell you that they weren’t afraid of a bomb going off. They

just wanted an extra day of vacation. So, the terrorists got their way.

They probably never thought about a bomb, except to use it as a way to

shut down the school.

I am tired of being a victim of the terrorists. Life isn’t

safety-free. All of us are willing to get into a car, where

statistically, the most random acts of decimation take place on an hourly

basis. Yet, we go through metal detectors at airports, courthouses and

schools, where the chances of someone bringing a weapon and using it are

minimal. It costs all of us time and money.

Anti-gun control forces assure me that guns don’t kill people, people

do. If guns don’t kill people, then why not take the same attitude about

doors, school grounds and bathrooms? Why do we limit our ingress and

egress to public buildings and bathrooms? Let’s not give up our freedom

or change our way of life to those who threaten terrorism.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].