Parents Worry Sending Students to School - ABC5 News Des Moines, IA

Parents Worry Sending Students to School

Jessica Daley

jdaley@myabc5.com

@TheDaleyReport

It was an emotional day for many parents. They sent their kids off to school Monday morning which should be like any other day but wasn't.
 
That's because it was the first day back at school for millions of students across the country after Friday's deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Schools are usually a safe place for children, and parents want their kids in the classroom. But on Monday, metro parents say it was hard to let them go.

"Very scary. A lot of concerns," says Teresa Weaver of Des Moines. 'Is it going to happen here? We want to take our kids out of school and home school them because the fear is crazy."

Parents at Studebaker Elementary in Des Moines say they have another reason to worry. A few weeks ago the school went on lock down after reports that a man with a gun was in the nearby woods.

That made at least one parent uncomfortable enough to pull her son out of school after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary Friday.
 
"I guess being an over-protective mother, call it what you may, that's something we chose to do for our own personal reasons," says Nichole Jones of Des Moines.

For her, just seeing that her son was OK on Friday made her feel better.

While every school has some form or many forms of security, parents say nothing's fail safe.

"If they're on a mission, they're going to do what it takes to complete the mission that their on," Jones says. "Nothing's ever going to be 100% safe."
 
Parents say they don't know when or if it'll ever be as easy to send their children off to school.