By Terri T. Johnson Almanac staff writer tjohnson@thealmanac.net
Students in the Peters Township Middle School will soon have the opportunity to give their parents a little peace of mind when, in cooperation with the Parent Teacher Association, the district and the township police department, children will take part in EZ Child ID.
The system will provide parents with a videotape of the child answering five easy questions that can be used by emergency services in the event the child is abducted or lost.
Every day, nationally, 2,000 children are reported missing and every year, 200,000 are taken by family members. Another 58,000 are victims of non-family abductions.
Peters Township police Chief Harry Fruecht said the age group that is targeted the most for abduction are those 10 to 14 years old. He said the program is not new, but there is new technology to simplify the process.
One of the main benefits of the system is everything will be stored on a compact disc that will be given to the parents. No information will be retained by the district, the police or in the actual system. Once the individual child's information is complete, before moving on to the next child, the system automatically deletes the previous information, Fruecht said.
The equipment was purchased by Centimark in Southpointe.
Each child will give a digital fingerprint and will sit in front of a small camera and microphone to answer five questions. A sample of the questions are: Who is your best friend? Where is your favorite place to play? What is your name?
There is no cost for the disc and the information contained is everything that is needed for the Amber Alert system.
Fruecht said everything is on a PDF file and can be printed on the family's computer. The advantage of a disc is that the information can easily and immediately be transmitted to other agencies when needed.
The chief suggested taking the disc along on vacation or when away from home.
According to Robert Freado, middle school principal, parents must complete a permission form and provide the information requested on the form. Once the screening is complete, parents may pick up the CD in the main office of the middle school.
Students will be screened during school hours and the district believes the process will take only a short time.
No screening dates have been announced but will occur in a few weeks.
Permission slips must be returned to the main office by Nov. 22.
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19 comments:
What a great program. I volunteered and helped with this program when they did it back in 2001-2003. I think it fell by the say side because of lack of volunteers to help. I am glad to see it return.
according to what i saw at recent meetings on the television, if pt and many other schools in pa, do not get funding for the teacher retirement funds, we will be bankrupt or run by the state within five years. they are cutting elective courses and possibly staff as well. some of the electives they are cutting are the ones required for graduation!
I agree! This sounds like a very good program. To change the subject, based upon the recently aired school board committee meetings, if things do not improve very quickly, it sounds like the district will be ran by the state within the next five years. I certainly do not think PTSD is alone in that situation. I think it is time the district take back the money it has thrown into ball fields and useless graduation requirements and go back to concentrating on the basics. They alluded to furloughs. If you look at the numbers and the facts, it is not a scare tactic. I am sick of these school directors throwing money at things that are not necessary in public education.
according to what i saw at recent meetings on the television, if pt and many other schools in pa, do not get funding for the teacher retirement funds, we will be bankrupt or run by the state within five years. they are cutting elective courses and possibly staff as well. some of the electives they are cutting are the ones required for graduation!
November 18, 2011 10:45 PM
Better yet, according to the presentation Nina Zetty made at a recent staff meeting, we will all be speaking Chinese. Nice racist comment from the super of our district. She should be fired for even saying such at thing at a staff meeting. Who does she think she is?
Congratulations PT Girls Soccer.....
"The Indians became the first WPIAL girls soccer team to repeat as PIAA champion"
After watching that Education Committee meeting last night, I am glad to see something positive happen in this school district with the child ID program.
The lady, at the education meeting, with black hair, was blatantly lying about the graduation project. Do these board members not follow up on what employees are telling them? Let me guess, they can not follow up because they might get sued. That lady clearly said the kids had three mentor meetings last year. My daughter, who is a junior, had ONE; it was in April. She had ONE this year as well. IN BOTH, the teacher DID NOT have time to get around to everyone. -Is that the 'mentoring' they were to be providing for past three years?
-Two mentoring sessions and a software program?
The only reason enrollment is really high in the 'Graduation Project' online course is because the district did NOT provide the resources to the kids that they said they would!! They DID NOT provide the online courses until this year and they DID NOT provide the tools to the juniors for the graduation project. How convenient to make the numbers appear like it is successful.
It makes me sick that these employees and this school board thinks it is so great that PTSD has a software program that helps kids with career guidance. The kids answer some questions, based on their teenage knowledge base of what they like and dislike, and low and behold, it spits out a list of careers. How pathetic.
These people should be ashamed of what they have put the class of 2013 through. These are our children they are experimenting with. The kids call themselves the Guinea pig class. It is not funny.
Why don't you just go back to having your nails done.
The district is hiring a business manager. I guess that means Mr. Solomon is retiring. I sure will miss him. He has done a great job with district investments and pinching every penny; of course some say he pinches penny's too much!
Based upon recent district expenditures that are not so frugal, I am guessing we have not seen the beginning of financial problems in this district. I see no value to high school students in requiring an online course. Not only did we waste money on the training, we probably also had to invest in more equipment and the people to service it.
Not only did the district recently lose a valuable person in the high school guidance office they are about to lose another one in January.
"The kids call themselves the Guinea pig class. It is not funny.
November 21, 2011 7:54 AM"
This same class was the one to miss out on the FLEX program and they had to choose a foreign language in 7th grade. So many kids wanted Spanish, they didn't all fit so many were just simply told "No, you're going to take French or German." Ridiculous. So now, they've had four years of a language they never wanted in the first place.
I agree that the online course is ONLY in demand because the district failed the kids in the first place and many are taking it just to get through the stupid process.
The mentoring meetings have been worthless. The online career cruising is a joke. And we are paying for this in more way than one.
"This same class was the one to miss out on the FLEX program and they had to choose a foreign language in 7th grade."
Wow, I forgot about that one. Yes they did! The sixth grade flex was not in existence yet and they dropped the 7th grade flex. In sixth grade the class of 2013 had ten minutes each of German, French and Spanish and were told to pick, then not permitted to have the one they picked!!!!
My child is going to take the online graduation course, not because he wants to, but because:
1) No other online courses are available yet that interest my child.
2) As a junior, they have had 2 mentoring meetings. Both have been unproductive.
"The lady at the education meeting with black hair that was lying?" HMMMM let me see did you mean Lynn Erenberg the head of the education committee, where have you been all these years? Wonder what here GPA is/was. One of the reasons we are in the mess we are in now.
What could anybody say to such negitive energy, put forward on this wonderful holiday "Thanksgiving". I am sure that Mrs. E spent a wonderful day with a "loving family" and I am sure she is still praying for you. I suggest when you sober up, you should do the same.
Wow, "go back to getting your nails done" and "sober up". It is a good thing you are anonymous. How insulting, hurtful, and childish!
What could anybody say to such negitive energy, put forward on this wonderful holiday "Thanksgiving". I am sure that Mrs. E spent a wonderful day with a "loving family" and I am sure she is still praying for you. I suggest when you sober up, you should do the same.
November 25, 2011 10:27 AM
Please do not assume I drink and even if I did I would still make the same statement. You know what they say about people who "assume"
Is she not head of the education committee?
Anonymous said...
What could anybody say to such negitive energy, put forward on this wonderful holiday "Thanksgiving". I am sure that Mrs. E spent a wonderful day with a "loving family" and I am sure she is still praying for you. I suggest when you sober up, you should do the same.
November 25, 2011 10:27 AM
Give yourself a break.
""The lady at the education meeting with black hair that was lying?" HMMMM let me see did you mean Lynn Erenberg the head of the education committee, where have you been all these years? Wonder what here GPA is/was. One of the reasons we are in the mess we are in now."
NO. I later found out it was Ms. Sanders, assistant principal and curriculum administrator for the high school. She sat there and lied about the progress of online classes and partially about the graduation project. I say 'partially' because it is true the freshman class and the sophomore class are doing well. The juniors are not. The juniors are asking underclassmen for help. She left that little tidbit out.
She also directly stated when asked, that there were 'three mentor meetings last year'. There were not. My child is a junior and had ONE mentor meeting last year and ONE this year. Apparently our high school curriculum person (that we pay an extra $10,000 every year) sees fit to lie to the school board and administration. Who knows, maybe administration told her to lie!
And here I sit BEGGING my junior to write the reflection papers before they're due Dec. 15th. So far, no progress. Anyone else's kid out there stonewalling this whole thing?
I do not believe Ms. Sanders was trying to lie. She is a truthful person, however this is so screwed up she probably doesn't know. Also, it could be that your child missed hearing about two of the meetings. This all goes back to a lack of direction from the top.
My 11th grader also only had one mentor meeting in April and one this Fall. They know they are lying. I think their jobs are threatened if they do not say what they are told to say. My child was also told the rubric received in 9th grade was made up by students and incorrect; they called her a liar to her face!!!!! The rubric was handed to her by a district employee. These are sick pathetic people calling students liars. The students might be misinformed at the hand of district employees but they are not liars. I bet none of this would happen if the children of school board members had to go through this. They only care about their own. Sorry PTSD you failed on this one and my child will as well. The choice is homework, study for SAT's, go to tutoring (because the teacher will not come in 10 minutes early to help kids) and work on the grad project. SAT's and homework come first.
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