Innocence Abducted: West Des Moines School Security Tightened, Police Procedures Change

Thirty years ago when John and Cathy Rossi decided that their son, Joe, would quit his paper route, their security had been shattered.

Johnny Gosch was last seen on the corner where Joe also picked up newspapers. It could have been Joe. Asking him to give up on a job that was supposed to teach him responsibility was easy for the Rossis – a juxtaposition that seemed at odds with the values of the suburban neighborhood.

Those were more innocent times on the Rossis’ block on Aspen Drive, where about three dozen children left their homes on hot summer days to find fun and adventure.

In the summer of 1982, parents like the Rossis generally knew where their children were, and normally the worst thing that happened to kids before they got home was that they scraped their knees while showing off on their bicycles.

“We used to think nothing of letting our kids do things like that,” John Rossi said. “They went out to play with neighborhood kids. They walked to school. We moved to this house so they could walk to school.”

Elementary School Lockdowns

And at that time, no one questioned anyone’s right to walk into an elementary school. Now visitors to the Rossis’ grandchildren’s grammar schools – in Iowa and in other states where the couple’s seven children and their families are scattered – face a locked door.

That’s been the policy in s for many years, district spokeswoman Elaine Watkins-Miller said.

“All of our elementary and junior high schools have a security system that requires people to be let in through an automated system,” she said. “The doors are locked.”

The district is also vigilant about communicating with parents when there’s a threat or perceived threat to children’s safety, Watkins-Miller said.

For example, when an elementary student in the next-door Waukee  school district reported an during the school district’s opening week, West Des Moines official dispatched the information in an email blast to all parents.

“When we hear about that type of situation and it is either in our school district or in nearby community and it has been validated by a police report we share that information,” Watkins-Miller said. “In that case wtih Waukee, they sent a communication and was quoted from that.”

In such communications, parents are also reminded of stranger danger rules and tips they can pass along to their children to keep them safe.

That’s mission critical for the school district, “not something that’s only done when an incident occurs,” according to Watkins-Miller. “That’s something we’re always communicating in the classroom.”

The threat doesn’t have to occur on school property for the school district to gt involved, she said. In 2011 after a youngster reported into a van after school, an email blast went out to district patrons.

Missing Person Reports Filed Immediately

spokesman Lt. Jim Barrett said that when parents or guardians report their children can’t be found, a missing persons report is filed. There’s no waiting period, as was an option for police 30 years ago when Johnny Gosch disappeared if they suspected the child was a runaway.

“If they didn’t come home from school right away, we have them call a friends’ house and investigate it. Whether they say, ‘she’s done this before and usually comes home’ or ‘it’s totally not like this person to do this,’ what always happens is that we put them in the system.”