Kids safety to become priority No. 1

“Your children should be as safe as we can make the school,” was the theme touted by Minneota Public School Principal Jeremy Frie Tuesday night. He’d attended a workshop regarding “lockdowns” at schools and came home with the seeds of a “safety plan” for the Minneota Schools spinning in his head.

“We saw videos on Columbine (and other areas), where shootings happened,” said the Principal.

The workshop went as far as to, “Lock the attending educators in a room and have them attacked by perpetrators.”

“We got locked in and it was eye-opening,” said Principal Frie.

He talked about how he was shot twice and, “Most of those in the room, all accept for about five, were shot.”

“They showed us the variety of high school doors that are used — and now we’re going to revamp some things,” said Frie.

The fact is, many more measures need to be taken in the Minneota School to make it safer for kids.

“I’d love to do more of a presentation in August after we decide what we’re going to do,” he said.

“There was a lot of data,” and the next step will be to pour over all the information and formulate a plan.

“We learned the authorities don’t get there in time and a lot of it is how we act,” said Principal Frie. “We need to find ways to lock up the school. We’ve got to come up with a good plan,” he said.

School Board member Doug Spanton said there is new technology using face recognition that helps prevent entrance into the school.

“I went to Springfield (school) to see what they have. Now I know we can do better and we’re going to look at that.”

“We hate to do this, but we’ve got to think about the kids,” said Frie.

“We’ve got to do it for survival.”

“I think it’s good we look in the mirror and see what we can do,” said Frie.

“Whatever you do you’ve got to plan,” said Board Member and Police Chief Bill Bolt.

“This is the world we live in now,” said Principal Frie, adding, “You’re going to see a lot of planning in coming months.”

He told Chief Bolt, “We need to practice what happens after a shooting. We need to practice fully in case that ever happens,” he said.