rep6@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE - Newspapers across the country - including the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle - are testing security by walking into schools and finding out how long reporters remain inside without being challenged.

Some schools here and elsewhere have made changes after reporters found where security was flawed.

Not everyone supports the walk-throughs.

"It's risky territory to do this kind of reporting," said Bob Steele, senior faculty in ethics at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

He has served as the journalism training school's ethics expert for 17 years.

There are ethical and journalistic risks as well as legal questions, he said.

But Jim McBride, state superintendent of public instruction, told the Associated Press that he welcomes such tests by papers.

"I believe they are performing a great public service," he said. "I believe we have among the safest schools in the nation, and I believe that they could also tighten up procedures."

Parent Bridget White of Cheyenne said it was OK for the WTE to do the story.

"If not you, who's going to do it?" she said. "I'd rather have something like this done so the schools can be aware of the shortcomings and work to fix them than have somebody with bad intentions to hurt children."

At Cheyenne's Central High, a reporter walked around for 20 minutes without being confronted. Principal Rick Porter said his staff will learn from the findings and have made some changes.

"We just hope it hasn't put a target on our backs," he said. "Our goal is to create the safest place for the kids without building a fortress."

Amanda Weeks of Cheyenne said she is not against what the WTE did. But she doesn't like the way the results were handled because it puts kids in danger.

"I completely support what you were trying to do; I want the schools to be safe," she said.

But she opposed publishing the names of schools where newspaper staff could walk around unchallenged.

The newspaper should have presented its research to the school district so it could fix problems, she said.

"I don't think it should be on the front page of the paper for everyone to know," she said.

Steele said examining school safety is a legitimate job for reporters.

"That said, I'm not enthused about the fishing expedition where we get out and wander into schools," he added.

He encouraged other ways to evaluate school security, including interviewing current and former employees or hiring an outside expert to check security.

"I'm concerned with the journalistic purpose of whether you're really proving anything of substance and also whether the method is counterproductive in a sense of creating a danger," he said.

"If we're going to do it, do it at a high level of professionalism. Don't just go on a fishing expedition. That is really risky and perhaps even unfair."

Rosalind Schliske, faculty adviser of Wingspan, the student newspaper at Laramie County Community College, said she understands using random checks to find information. But she expressed concerns about doing such a project when children are involved.

"I don't know whether you can draw conclusions from what you did," she said. "But it (the information found) should raise some flags, and isn't that what community journalism is all about?"

Laramie County School District 1 Superintendent Dan Stephan said the district will use the WTE test results as a drill. Schools that didn't do well will improve there stranger alert processes, he said.

"We appreciate the test," he added "The safety of our kids is No. 1."

School safety consultant Kenneth Trump said parents and educators should consider the results as teachable moments and tighten up gaps.

"In this case, the good news is that those schools that failed your test at least found out by a reporter doing it and not someone with ill intentions," he said.