Administrators with the Brewster Central Schools are slated to gather Monday afternoon to discuss possible changes in security following the school shooting that left more than two dozen dead in Sandy Hook Friday.
The meeting is intended to be a "debriefing" of sorts for principals and other administrators who are expected to share thoughts on beefing up safety procedures. Officials said they would release specifics on any changes once they are available, as the discussion will be an "ongoing" one.
"We're in listening mode now, we're taking it all in," Board of Education President Dr. Steven Jambor said Monday morning.
Jambor, along with Deputy Superintendent Tim Conway and Superintendent Dr. Jane Sandbank, visited each of the district's four buildings Monday morning to get a sense of the mood amongst faculty, staff and students.
"At JFK, you couldnt tell anything was different," Jambor said, adding that the energy there—from the district's youngest students—was "good."
Things were a bit different at the high school, where some of the kids were "serious and somber."
"They're figuring out ways to appropriately respond and show support," Jambor said.
Teachers were prepared to deal with those feelings, as principals met with instructors early Monday morning and "laid out the game plan," Jambor, a psychologist, told Patch. Part of the plan was remembering that "there is no perfect response" when students ask about the tragedy.
"Your best approach is to show them that business is carrying on," he said, adding that teachers were aware of other age-appropriate responses for kids who may have been feeling some anxiety.
That anxiety is something school officials are aware of. They took it into consideration when giving the OK for the school resource officer (SRO), a deputy with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office who is usually stationed at the high school, to spend some time at JFK Monday.
"Children in buildlings that don't have an SRO could start to wonder," he said. "We're walking a fine line between trying to be proactive and alarming."
Luanne Manteo
I walked into CV STARR for parent teacher conference at 8 am and the door wasn't locked I walked right in and no one even asked me who I was or what I was doing there....pretty scary
I think it would be worth the district to look into bullet proof glass for the security interface area as well as a security system that lets out an alarm to the whole school if the system is breached, as well as an alarm to the state/local police and fire departments. I don't know if it's allowed, but I think it would be good if teachers were armed with mace for similar school shootings, if only to be used to disarm the shooter, since teachers can't have guns in school. Those poor teachers at Sandy Hook needed more to shield their students besides their own bodies.
ATF reports, in 2010 there were 5,459,240 new firearms manufactured in the United States, (95 percent) for the U.S. market. An additional 3,252,404 firearms were imported to the United States. You can buy a gun if you don’t have a criminal record and you have not been adjudicated as mentally incompetent. In 2010 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) ran 16,454,951 background checks for firearms purchases. Only 78,211 or 0.48 percent) were denied. The number of people killed by firearms in the United States remains high. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, between 2006 and 2010 47,856 people were murdered in the U.S. by firearms, more than twice as many as were killed by all other means combined. Statistics compiled by Jack Date, Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan.
While on your ever constant soap box, in which most of us just hear noise from you; according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2006 and 2010, 171,313* people died in vehicle accidents. 171,313 fatalities, is three times as many as were killed by GUNS in the same period. So how is it that “between 2006 and 2010 47,856 people were murdered in the U.S. by firearms, more than twice as many as were killed by all other means combined”? *Statistics complied with common sense and due diligence.
This is something we can do at the local level without waiting for the state or federal government to make our schools safer.
(http://newtown.patch.com/terms).
What if the next school shooting is by a student in the school? Have every kid walk through security, in the morning when they walk through the doors? Have bomb squads check all cars parked in the lots? When will it end? Look at the frightening numbers of how many students are victims of acts of violence in public schools every day. What needs to be fixed is not security but it's how children are brought up today. They need to be taught non-violence. Kids just being kids is not an excuse for bullying. Teach your children to stand up for their classmates if they are being bullied and who knows, you may have stopped a suicide or future school shooting...