Second in a series
Re “Getting to Know the Office of Child Development and Its Good Secrets”
Four days after Newtown, it can be comforting for Culver City families to know that their children who are the ages of the Sandy Hook student martyrs are lovingly – and safely – cared for in a conscientious setting.
Because of their massive responsibilities, this youngest division of the School District – which shepherds 1100 children from ages 3 to 12 each day – has closely followed national news developments since Friday morning.
And reacted.
“We are being a little more aware of security,” Darla Pulliam, a longtime pre-school teacher for the Office of Child Development, said this afternoon as mothers were arriving to gather their children.
That would include one major change:
“One of the extra precautions we have taken is that we are making sure the outside doors to the classrooms are locked.
“Before, they were not locked,” Ms. Pulliam said.
“That way, we feel a little more secure.
“We teachers have heightened our awareness, seeing if there is anything else that we can do.
“Our parents all feel very secure with our policies and the things we have been doing.
“Parents have not been overly concerned because they know that we are very secure.”
A veteran of 24 years on the 41-year-old Farragut campus, Ms. Pulliam said that School District security officers, always visible, may have been a little more noticeable this week, although their routine has not changed.
She has not seen uniformed Police Dept. officers.
The policy for visitors remains the same. They are required to check into the office first.
In addition to her teaching duties, Ms. Pulliam is a curriculum specialist. “I mentor the teachers and keep them abreast of new information,” she said. “Our goal is to stay fresh.”
She seems as enthusiastic about being an educator at the first formal stop in children’s lives as she was when she began here in 1988.
“I am a pre-school teacher,” Ms. Pulliam said, “because it is so rewarding to be able to see the children grow, to see them at the starting point and then to see how they grow throughout the year.”
