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CNN Live Today
Keeping Children Safe
Aired October 23, 2002 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: As you heard, Patty was talking about the latest threats, specifically about children, that they could be targeted at anyplace, any time according to the man police believe to be the sniper.
This is affecting parents all across the region as they try to decide whether to send their kids to school today. There is a Code Blue here in Montgomery County, where kids will remain locked in their classrooms. D.C. schools are not offering bus service today as a precaution.
CNN's Michael Okwu has been talking to parents.
And Michael -- it's got to be a tough decision for parents on what they go on, their gut, or what they're hearing in the news that their kids can be safe in school.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, that's right, Carol. Some parents say that the safest place to be right now is in school, and yet there are other parents who say there is no way they're going to send their kids to school after this message from the sniper.
This is Fairfax County where we are here, and it's something of a high school zone. There's an alternative high school behind me. Just up the street, there's another high school.
And all morning, Carol, we've been trying to give our viewers a sense of the topography here, because the landscape here is very typical of the high schools in the suburban area in Washington, D.C., basically buildings set along a line of trees.
And all -- for the past two weeks or so, we've been talking to parents and students who say that they think about that now every time that they walk to school.
As a matter of fact, this morning, a team of Guardian Angels came down here to Fairfax County, and I imagine perhaps to other counties in the tri-state area, and they were patrolling the woods along many of the schools, essentially looking for anything suspicious, and also acting as a deterrent. Never before in the local history here have the woods been so closely associated with danger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been devastating over the past month. I've been driving my son to school every day, even though it's not that far. I won't let him walk anywhere. We don't go anywhere. I'm a schoolteacher. I have all my kids in. I've had them in for a month now. And they're scared. They don't want to walk outside. The patrols don't want to go out of the building, and you know, everyone is just devastated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, the cars and buses started filing in this morning, many more so than usual, I am told, because so many parents wanted to make sure to personally bring their kids here to school.
Now, we also know that the school is still very much in a Code Blue here. The two schools that you're -- that we are situated next to in a Code Blue, which basically means that all of the students are locked in their classrooms, the windows are shut down, the shades are shut down, and no one is allowed to walk through the hallways unless you've got to go to the men's room or the ladies' room, and only then can you go with a monitor with you. And also, the entrances to the schools themselves are also locked down.
Now, all of this security is going to be very small comfort to some of the parents that I have spoken to, because over in Montgomery County yesterday, I spoke to a handful of parents who say that they are seriously considering not taking their kids to school until this sniper is caught -- Carol.
LIN: That's what we're hearing as well. Thank you very much -- Michael Okwu reporting live in Fairfax, Virginia.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired October 23, 2002 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: As you heard, Patty was talking about the latest threats, specifically about children, that they could be targeted at anyplace, any time according to the man police believe to be the sniper.
This is affecting parents all across the region as they try to decide whether to send their kids to school today. There is a Code Blue here in Montgomery County, where kids will remain locked in their classrooms. D.C. schools are not offering bus service today as a precaution.
CNN's Michael Okwu has been talking to parents.
And Michael -- it's got to be a tough decision for parents on what they go on, their gut, or what they're hearing in the news that their kids can be safe in school.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, that's right, Carol. Some parents say that the safest place to be right now is in school, and yet there are other parents who say there is no way they're going to send their kids to school after this message from the sniper.
This is Fairfax County where we are here, and it's something of a high school zone. There's an alternative high school behind me. Just up the street, there's another high school.
And all morning, Carol, we've been trying to give our viewers a sense of the topography here, because the landscape here is very typical of the high schools in the suburban area in Washington, D.C., basically buildings set along a line of trees.
And all -- for the past two weeks or so, we've been talking to parents and students who say that they think about that now every time that they walk to school.
As a matter of fact, this morning, a team of Guardian Angels came down here to Fairfax County, and I imagine perhaps to other counties in the tri-state area, and they were patrolling the woods along many of the schools, essentially looking for anything suspicious, and also acting as a deterrent. Never before in the local history here have the woods been so closely associated with danger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been devastating over the past month. I've been driving my son to school every day, even though it's not that far. I won't let him walk anywhere. We don't go anywhere. I'm a schoolteacher. I have all my kids in. I've had them in for a month now. And they're scared. They don't want to walk outside. The patrols don't want to go out of the building, and you know, everyone is just devastated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, the cars and buses started filing in this morning, many more so than usual, I am told, because so many parents wanted to make sure to personally bring their kids here to school.
Now, we also know that the school is still very much in a Code Blue here. The two schools that you're -- that we are situated next to in a Code Blue, which basically means that all of the students are locked in their classrooms, the windows are shut down, the shades are shut down, and no one is allowed to walk through the hallways unless you've got to go to the men's room or the ladies' room, and only then can you go with a monitor with you. And also, the entrances to the schools themselves are also locked down.
Now, all of this security is going to be very small comfort to some of the parents that I have spoken to, because over in Montgomery County yesterday, I spoke to a handful of parents who say that they are seriously considering not taking their kids to school until this sniper is caught -- Carol.
LIN: That's what we're hearing as well. Thank you very much -- Michael Okwu reporting live in Fairfax, Virginia.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
