Ms. Elaine Kneeous

Franklin High School & Pipe Bombs: A Mother's Perspective

Posted by Jennifer Fischer on March 14, 2012

I’m a tax-paying resident and parent in Franklin.  I would say that a status of tax-payer & parent allows me to have an opinion on Franklin Public School matters even if my daughter is not old enough to attend school yet.  Given the current administration and recent events I can honestly say that she will probably not be attending FHS in a few years.

I’ll assume that if you read my innocuous blog about baking & party planning on FranklinNOW.com you certainly read Kevin’s for all things newsy, hard-hitting and political.  So I’ll continue my assumptions and figure that you have read his blogs pertaining to the pipe bomb & weapon debacle that occurred in Franklin beginning March 1, 2012.

Here’s my perspective… a mom’s point of view who could be (but isn’t!) considering enrolling her daughter in Franklin High School in a mere 10 years.  (10 years sounds like a long time but it could take that long to clean things up in that district.  I don’t know if Janet Evans has the stomach to stick around that long.)

While I admittedly don’t know every single detail of the school’s policies on drugs, weapons and other clearly illegal activities I would imagine it is like many other “zero tolerance” schools.  If you bring a gun to school well sorry, sonny, you’re out of luck and out of here.  Ahhh, except that this time, Little Johnny didn’t bring the gun (and pipe bomb) to school, the IED and gun were at his house instead.

In the infinite wisdom of the school authorities, that apparently meant that not only could they not discipline the student by expelling him, they didn’t have to inform the parents of students attending FHS.  Only after exposure by Mark Belling and my husband did the officials decide to take further action.

They can defend themselves all they want; pat themselves on the back; sing Kumbaya at board meetings; it’s not going to change the terribly inept way they handled the recent events.

With just a few moments of searching online for policies and procedures, here’s what I found from their website…  First, from the Franklin Public Schools main page:  The drop-down under “District” has a Communications Plan.  If you would care to scroll down to page 3, item number 2 you can read:  “Open lines of communication are essential to a healthy school environment. Parents and community members who are informed and involved can help our community’s schools succeed. All staff must take responsibility to share information when needed with parents and community members to keep them abreast of what is taking place in our schools.”

Really?  Then wouldn’t it make sense for parents to BE INFORMED of a pipe bomb-making student walking the halls with their children?  Hmmm, yeah, I’d sure think so.

Then let’s meander over to the Student Handbook link on Franklin High School’s page.  Link #41 titled “Threatening/Violent Behavior” includes this tidbit:  “Regulation of off-campus behavior:  students may be subject to school discipline for behaviors off-campus that have a negative effect on students and behaviors that endanger property, health, or safety of others.”

Admittedly I’m not as formally educated as our school leaders.  But I can read a Communications Plan and Student Handbook effectively.  And I can understand that on a most basic level, Franklin High School administrators failed to apply & follow their OWN rules.

I’m sure, though, if a girl brought Midol to school to relieve monthly discomfort her parents would be contacted, there would be a memo distributed to all students reminding them of the “drug policy” and her private property would be searched regularly for contraband.

I’d like to say they’ve lost all common sense.  Unfortunately I don’t think they possessed it in the first place.