School guards take up posts as attacks continue

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-13 07:54

More than 2,000 school security guards took up positions at about 500 kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools in Beijing on Wednesday, but thousands of school-guard vacancies remained in the capital.

A school security team was set up by the Beijing Security Service General Company (SSGC) on May 12, after five brutal attacks against students during the previous 40 days.

The attacks, mainly by men wielding knives against young children congregating at school gates, led school security to be discussed across the nation.

"My son used to walk back home by himself because our apartment is only three blocks away from his school, but now I have to take him to school and pick him up because there have been so many school attacks reported recently," said Ma Wenjuan, the mother of a third-grade student at No 1 Experimental Primary School.

"There are more than 3,000 public schools and kindergartens, about 500 private schools and almost 2,000 unlicensed kindergartens in Beijing," said Li Detong, a senior officer with the municipal public security bureau.

"Schools take the major responsibility for their security, and we try our best to coordinate with them."

According to the new school security system, there will be at least one police officers and two school security guards stationed at each school.

The number of security personnel is based on the school's security situation, the number of campus exits and the population of students.

"We are training 800 more security guards to join the team but there are still thousands of positions available. We will try to get enough qualified guarding personnel by the end of this year," he said.

In contrast to regular security guards, school security guards must undergo a special one-month training program and psychological testing before they are cleared to work at the schools, the SSGC said.

"We only accept licensed security guards who have at least one year of working experience in Beijing," said Ma Xuguang, a manger at the SSGC.

"The special training will be coordinated with our service targets because young students have a low awareness of their security and poor ability to respond to security issues."

He said that each school security guard will be equipped with a helmet, a stab-proof vest, a pair of cut-proof gloves and a rubber baton. Some schools are also providing steel pitchforks and pepper sprays to subdue would-be attackers.

"The school security guards will reside in the boarding schools. For normal schools, they will patrol around the school grounds and guard the gates during peak hours before and after school," he said.