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...senior known as Bee Gee. He grew up in North Webster, the district's predominantly black neighborhood. His father is a supermarket produce manager; his stepmother works at a department store. Bobby once worked at the Gap after school, but with chiseled good looks and at 6 ft. 2 in. and 195 lbs., he looked as if he should be posing in the clothing chain's ads, not restocking its shelves. He has an ability to seduce both kids and adults. When he works as an aide in the principal's office, visitors often just stare...
...rally is over, and about 90 of Webster's teachers and administrators are in the library talking about two of the school's top priorities: keeping students in school--and keeping them alive. The "girl with a gun" scenario is part of an exercise in crisis management--and is based on an incident that happened at the school five years ago. Teachers split into groups of nine to draft a response to various emergencies...
...team in the northeast corner has been assigned the bomb threat, which actually happened more than a year ago. The school was evacuated, but search dogs found no bomb. Police did, however, catch the boys who called in the threat, one a Webster student, who was expelled. It gets the teachers talking about security in general--and Columbine in particular. "The bombs at Columbine were planted beforehand, at night, when there wouldn't be any witnesses," says Ken Winingham, who teaches psychology. "Our school is wide open at night. If you want to plant a bomb here...
Instead, this very day, phone technicians are installing equipment that will make it easier to trace calls coming in to Webster High. Earlier in the day, Voss asked the school's maintenance chief, Frank Schaffer, to post two employees on the roof whenever the school has a crisis evacuation or drill. "I'm worried about that situation in Jonesboro, where the kids with guns shot the other kids as they were leaving the building for a fire drill," she said. "It would be good to have someone on the roof to make sure it's safe to leave...
...other preoccupation, keeping students in school, the teachers know how much pressure the administration is under. Last year Webster Groves received $150,000 in extra funds from Missouri's A-Plus program, whose top goal is to reduce the dropout rate. Webster's rate has declined from 3.9% to 1.3% over the past five years, but needs to stay down to keep the state funds flowing. So the school has compiled a list of 150 students considered highly "at risk" of quitting, and is targeting them for extra attention. Everyone agrees that this effort is admirable--and necessary, given...