Do you want phone alerts about abduction attempts, crime?
Our current school district robocalls parents when there is abduction attempt or an attempt to lure children into a car. We’ve probably had five or six calls in the last 15 months and several, they believe, were perpetrated by the same man.
The recorded message tells you what happened including details about the sex and age of the child approached, a description of the person and their vehicle and how the child got away.
The district gets the message out quickly and does a good job posting extra teachers along routes the children walk home. I do find it helpful, but it’s also scary to know. I don’t remember any of these phone calls in Georgia, which makes me wonder do they not call or is it not happening?
I am also now on a list to get texts and emails about any threats on the university’s campus. They have had a couple of armed robbery attempts on campus in the last two weeks. I encouraged my students to sign up for the text messages. Several were already on the list.
(I also have gotten notices about suspected gas leaks at a certain building. The problem is I don’t know the campus well enough to know if that is near my building. So that doesn’t help me much.)
I like that both our school district and the university are keeping the public informed about safety issues and they seem to be doing it very efficiently.
Does your school ever email, text or call if there is an abduction attempt or an attempt to lure a child on the way to school? Would you like for your district to notify you?
Do your university students receive text alerts about campus safety incidents? Would you encourage your student to sign up for such texts if they are available?
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32 comments Add your comment
catlady
October 13th, 2011
6:58 am
While at GSU for her Master’s, my daughter got some of these.
If there is anything going on near our school, we lock it down (makes many parents mad) but I don’t think there are robocalls about it. Teachers eventually find out, on a need-to-know basis. Luckily where I live there is little of this. Occasionally there are custody disputes, but we have been very proactive, I think, in dealing with this.
Bupkis
October 13th, 2011
6:59 am
Information is knowledge. Knowledge is power.
homeschooler
October 13th, 2011
7:28 am
I don’t know about the schools but I know that Cobb County will send an automated call about missing children to all the phone numbers in the area. I can appreciate it but it scares the crap out of me to get a phone call on my land line in the middle of the night.
I think the school thing is a good practice. I do think you should have the option to sign up for it or refuse it.
2012: CAIN is Able!
October 13th, 2011
7:34 am
No, I do NOT want government-sent text messages to my phone, local, state or federal.
The current Jivetalker-in-Chief has recently mandated that the cell phone companies HAVE TO relay mass messages from that clown in the next wave of cell phones.
I can look out my window and see its the end of the world.
I don’t need to get annoying text messages in my final hours from the government, likely with errors in grammar, spelling & punctuation, that were lifted right from a teleprompter.
Jeff
October 13th, 2011
7:50 am
I think it’s generally a great idea. I wonder, though, how many of these notices result in a “rush” on the school by parents and how much that complicates things. It’s a natural reaction, so there’s not much you can do to prevent it.
Anyone expereince that?
motherjanegoose
October 13th, 2011
7:56 am
We do get notifications from UGA, where our daughter is a student, as she has signed herself up and us too.
motherjanegoose
October 13th, 2011
8:11 am
Anyhone care to comment on my post this morning on yesterday’s blog about those who leave the church? Something hit me last night, after my meetings, and I thought of the blog. Thanks, sorry for the side track.
Me
October 13th, 2011
8:21 am
Cobb County “robocalls” about a number of items but I don’t recall receiving anything related to abduction attempts or similar. The PTSA also sends out email notifications but, as above, they haven’t contained that subject matter.
JJ
October 13th, 2011
8:40 am
No thank you!
MILF Chaser
October 13th, 2011
8:56 am
I could care less about abductions or whatever, but I’ve been considering signing up for automated messages from eBay for auctions I’m watching & bidding on.
:)
JOD
October 13th, 2011
9:08 am
@Jeff – I generally think that ‘knowing is half the battle,’ but in this case what could I do about it? I would probably still want to know.
JOD
October 13th, 2011
9:12 am
@MJG – I avoided yesterday’s blog since it was bombed (was it posted on the main page or what?!), but read your post.
TallMom
October 13th, 2011
9:17 am
I’m guessing that if there were attempted abductions of school children, it would be on the news, so no, I don’t think it’s happening here (Cobb County). I would honestly be concerned that you’re living in an area that has had 5 or 6 such attempts in the last 15 months. I’m not a paranoid person, but those kinds of statistics would have me looking to move.
As for notifying college students of threats on campus…VERY valuable tool and will probably help save many lives.
motherjanegoose
October 13th, 2011
9:17 am
JOD..what does bombed mean? I can be dense with some things, so I apologize in advance.
Name (required)
October 13th, 2011
9:19 am
No. Nobody seems to be able to set their stupid cellphones to silent/vibrate anymore. I don’t want to be bombarded with people annoying ringtones
Jenny Mccarthy
October 13th, 2011
9:50 am
MILF Chaser = Presidential canidate, nice comment.
shaggy
October 13th, 2011
9:52 am
Negative
No robo calls of any kind to my phone.
I don’t live in some kind of vigilant state of awareness. I want to be relaxed whan someone kidnaps my family…then, I can aim better.
Jenny Mccarthy
October 13th, 2011
9:57 am
Shaggy = VP
Jeff
October 13th, 2011
9:57 am
JOD – I guess I just imagine parents going in to panick mode and rushin the school to get their kids. All rationality goes out the window in certain situations, and I imagine this would be one.
Mattie
October 13th, 2011
9:58 am
We also get the alerts from GSU. Our eldest finished his masters there a year ago. How the heck do you get off the list?
We are registered with our town for alerts, but only had one call so far, regarding closed roads due to weather conditions last winter. That was appreciated.
Kat
October 13th, 2011
10:01 am
Two comments: I think all college students should sign up for text alerts for campus crimes. Virginia Tech’s horrific situation a few years back should serve as a reminder.
Regarding the gas leak in the building. A campus map should be all that you need to know how close or far away that building is from you.
JJ
October 13th, 2011
10:08 am
I agree with Kat. College students need this kind of alert…..
JOD
October 13th, 2011
10:11 am
@MJG – I just meant that it was lit up (’bombed’) by a TON of people, many of whom didn’t have anything productive to say. Guess I was too busy (or lazy?) to pick through the chaff to find the wheat :o)
@Jeff – I agree – you see it all the time on the news when schools go on lockdown.
@Kat – Good point for college kids.
Deklan Georgia
October 13th, 2011
11:06 am
Once Again… If you WANT to receive these messages; you can.. NO Mandatory Mass Messages!! Opting out means the president and his robo-call happy constituents, too.
JJ
October 13th, 2011
11:30 am
MJG – as for your question yesterday, this Atheist supports several charities. I give my time, I donate money and household items, etc. I will NOT support any charity that sends money overseas. I prefer the local ones, that keep the money in our community, like Bikers Battling Breast Cancer. 100% of the proceeds stay in the Atlanta area, and it is ALL volunteer, no administrative costs at all. Unlike Susan G. Kolman, who’s proceeds are mostly administrative, same the Red Cross….
Wayne
October 13th, 2011
11:46 am
I think we’ll be seeing a lot more alerts coming down the road. I’m working on the town Emergency Alert System (the old EBS). There have been some federal mandates handed down on how it is to work, and they’ve added an additional system called CAP (Common Alerting Protocol). Should be interesting to see what is going to happen with this system – is it going to be abused? Are we going to get alerts about your headlights are on? I dunno. We’ll have to see. The list of alerts that can be sent through this system is pretty extensive. Thankfully, for us, it’s only over the cable TV system.
JOD
October 13th, 2011
11:52 am
@Wayne – Sounds like they’re complicating what’s already there? I guess that’s government’s job :o) There’s a battle in our house if the TV is on between the TV alert and the weather radio for which one goes off first.
shaggy
October 13th, 2011
12:50 pm
Wayne,
I can’t let this one pass. You just alerted us about……….”alerts”…an alerting “system” even.
Now I’m scared. I am putting the damn helmet on, maybe throw back some good scotch later on to soothe my trembling nerves.
Wayne
October 13th, 2011
3:47 pm
Sorry Shaggy: There is a national test coming up next month and they (gubmint) are already sending out notifications so people don’t get freaked out. They even have a .WAV file that cable operators can use to help with that.
grits1am
October 14th, 2011
5:00 am
I am all for messages you can sign up to receive (or opt out of). This morning in the past 15 mins there have been 7 weekly tests of the emergency alert system on the TV. This is annoying.
Wayne
October 14th, 2011
9:03 am
Based on what I’m getting, and reading, we’re going to get more. Everyone has to make sure their equipment is up to snuff. I’m annoyed, and I’m the one that has to make sure the equipment is all set!
Big Mama
October 14th, 2011
6:53 pm
No way do I want to receive robocalls or texts from our school or any level of government. I can see this getting highjacked by the PTA with reminders to turn in wrapping paper order forms, etc.