Architecture

I haven't posted about Friday's tragedy in Connecticut, there's nothing to say really.  All we can do is pray for the families and surviving children from that school.

I'll leave any discussions about guns to the professionals, although I heard on the radio today that Connecticut has an assault weapons ban, but the shooter's mother's gun was grandfathered in since she evidently had the gun before the ban went into effect.

I'll also leave any mental health discussions to the professionals.  My only comment is that there should be more consideration of the safety of society at large and less for the "rights" of mentally disturbed people.

I started thinking this evening about my school, St. Sylvester's in Brooklyn.  Unfortunately, that school has now closed.  That school had thick metal doors, probably brass.  I suspect the doors were kept locked, and could only be opened from the inside.  There were no classrooms on the first floor.  The principal's office, the nurse's office and two 1st grade classrooms were on the second floor and the higher grades on the third and fourth floors.  The classroom doors were wood and I think the top half had glass, but six small panes.  The school was built in the mid '30's. 

It's too bad that so many new schools are not built the same way.  There are too many windows in the doors, it's so easy to break the glass and open the door.  The classrooms for the younger children are right on the first floor, street level.  That makes it so easy for the children to be victimized.

I see now how safe and lucky we were to have been children in such a time.  No one could have broken in.  If they had, there would have been enough noise and warning for the children and staff on the upper floors.  Maybe, in the future, schools will be built like mine was.  By building up and not sprawling, they also take up less room.