Protection of schools and institutes a must

“Paste this!” said the Principal, and it was pasted by an assistant. The gate post of a premier school turned a pillar of instruction. It read “ Birthday cakes are NOT allowed into school premises due to security reasons ”.

In other words, what resembles a cake could cause a deadly bomb explosion in a compound packed with children.

The sweetness of cake is catapulted away by bitterness of reality. Birthdays sans cakes are becoming the order of the day – at least in schools. That’s how fear of (class room) death is filtering down to the future minds of Sri Lanka.

“Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned ” stated great Mark Twain. Yet, the saddening truth is that our kids are beginning to learn – TERRORISM – what should have been dropped in the dustbin of unlearning. Yes! Each one of us is circumstantially pressed upon to learn - at least - how to escape it if we cannot stop it. Contrary to the notion that opening a school leads to closure of a prison - watch closely – the schools are becoming virtual prisons in slow motion.

True learning happens in happy and free minds, not in tensed minds or enclosed surroundings. But, schools have limited options than introducing whatever possible protective controls. Schools in fact are helpless - with an enormous life security responsibility with multiple resource constrains. In this end stands a modest school teacher, and at the other a brutal terrorist – a civility gap which is poles apart. Question - who is in the middle ? The chilling answer is – they are your precious kids.

The shining contour in the gloomy cloud is that schools are somewhat proactive in their own initiative and capacity. May be learned gurus know that the protection of our kids cannot be bargained, compromised, manipulated or politicized.

When protection is manipulatively politicized, a smiling face on TV screen tells us - No danger what so ever – even if terrorists are showering mortar bombs into the city. That is what he or she is paid for – to design and tell what is politically right even in the face of imminent disaster.

As the saying goes “A single death is a tragedy. But thousand deaths are only statistics”. Terrorists have tested this more and better. Chechnyan terrorists proved it when they stormed into a school in Russia, resulting in terrific deaths upon hundreds of innocent kids.

The world did not worry about the agony of screaming parents, but was interested only on escalating statistics. The same is true for weeping parents of massacred 30 plus students - 12 days ago at Virginia Technical Campus in USA – by an insane gunman.

Schools as targets
“ We will not target schools ” was the fox cry from a terrorist voice wave. They know that some people can be fooled - all the time. Few schools even dropped their protective readiness thus crushing the golden mantra – “ never trust a terrorist ”. School, institute or even Sunday school tragedy can be exploited to unleash shivering shock waves across the nation, boost bogus peace lobbies, destabilize collective state focus, thin-out military presence in combat platform, energize terrorist psycho thrust, enhance terror fund inflow and above all else - to force our young generation feel that surrendering to terrorism - the bloodiest form of human life - is the only way out.

Risk parameters
Terrorist infiltration, holding school kids as hostage for captive swap, drinking water poisoning, spraying of killer virus are few undercurrent risks our schools are facing, though the focus has been on obvious - bomb explosion.

“ Guarding only the obvious ” has been our habit thus far. When intensive road check points are in place - terrorists use rail tracks, water streams to move undetected and innocently operate a tea shop near a check point that is (warmly) serving the search team too. This is the core difference between academic combat and creative combat.

That’s why risk mitigation solutions for schools must leap beyond primitive boundaries to meet the adequacy.
Art of protection

Protection of schools is more of a subtle art than an authoritative control.

As one worried parent stated “ I am an architect. I voluntarily serve in the vigilant team in my kid’s school. I read the difference between a floor tile and a wall tile by sight. But how do I pick the difference between a harmless person and a disguised terrorist.

Schools tell us to be vigilant. I know what it means. But, HOW to be vigilant – no one ever taught us ”. This parent - like many of us - knows what, but not how.

Therefore, SKILLS of vigilance and response are what is in quick need for teachers, students, parents and other associates of schools.

In the arena of urban terrorism – It is not the BIG that eats the SMALL – It is the FAST that eats the SLOW !!! Want a testimony? Just visualize airborne terrorists escaping after bombing the Air Force Base – Katunayake. It certainly is not about Super Sonics, but about Super Gimmicks.

The author is Strategic Security Specialist / Pragmatic Trainer & CEO of Strategic Security Solutions. He can be reached at – solutions@sltnet.lk