Point Boro Parent Wants Better Security, Without Hassle

Shaylynn Jones just wanted to see her daughter perform. She didn't have her driver's license, however, so she had to go all the way back to her car to get it.

She got it. And the person at Nellie Bennett Elementary School looked it for a second, she said, and waved her in.

That's it? She thought. After all that. And she missed most of her daughter's performance.

Jones's bottom line is this: The district makes the parents work hard to protect the kids while the schools take it a little too easy, Jones said.

For all the effort parents make to ensure that their school is safe – such as running back to her car to get her license – shouldn't the school reciprocate?

"I said, 'That's all you needed?' She said, 'That's the rule.' I said, 'If that's the rule, that's horrible,' " Jones said. "All somebody has to do is show a license and get in there."

Superintendent Vincent Smith defended the security procedure, saying that checking for IDs is important because it's one way to ensure that the right people are entering the school. He said the district also has limited points of entry at its facilities.

Jones said she started crying when she learned that the license problem would prevent her from seeing most of the show.

But she was simply incensed when she saw her license was treated like an afterthought.

"They had no clipboard, no cross-checking – what you did absolutely verified nothing," she said.

"There's nothing safe about this," she said.