Kevin Hillier says it’s important to keep things in perspective
Lots of things about our modern world worry me but none more than the increasing threat of harm to our children. Last week a Point Cook school was in lock-down mode because a taxi-driver was seen urinating nearby.
We’ve had a spate of threatening phone calls recently which have forced schools to activate their evacuation plans. Thankfully, the calls turned out to be hoaxes, and while that’s good news, the number of these incidents is increasing. No school will take the chance that these calls are not serious, because one day one will be.
We’ve seen distressed parents lining up at schools to collect children. Television news loves this stuff, as do the mindless idiots who make nuisance calls. Most of the children are fine and handle the situation calmly and we parents should take that on board in our reaction to these situations. The last thing we want is for our kids to think school is a place where bad things happen. It should be a place they look forward to attending for lots of reasons.
Sadly, this has become an issue and we need to address it. I received a text message from my son’s school last week while I was in the middle of a recording session. I looked quickly at it and saw the word ‘evacuation’ and my heart jumped into my throat.
After a proper reading, the message also included the words ‘evacuation drill’ and all went well. We need to keep our wits about us but not let this type of behaviour rule our world and make us change the way we go about life. Otherwise the bad guys win and that’s just not on.
Councillor responses
I have officially given up on the three remaining councillors who have not bothered to respond to my emails regarding their intentions to run or not in this year’s council election. So here is how the final numbers stack up. Of 11 councillors, one is definitely not standing, three definitely are, four are undecided and three did not respond. One of the latter three did not reply to my emails but did send me a Facebook friend request. No prize for guessing my response to that. ■
If you have any news or events, let me know at kevin@howdypartnersmedia. com.au
