District officials continue to review current school safety protocols in light of the Newtown, CT, tragedy. To that end, Deputy Superintendent David Aderhold has been meeting with the West Windsor and Plainsboro police departments, as well as county and state law enforcement, Department of Education, and Department of Homeland Security personnel.
Aderhold and others have met separately with principals, assistant principals, teacher representatives, school safety committees, building use teams, and others, to get different perspectives on what safety measures are working and what need to be improved. In addition, on January 29, school officials and principals met with police personnel to develop immediate, short term, and long term safety measures and goals.
Aderhold has also scheduled a series of meetings with parents through the various schools’ PTA/PTSAs. Two have already been held, at Village and Millstone schools, and a third is scheduled at Maurice Hawk on Thursday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m. At the first of these meetings, held at Village School, Aderhold outlined the current safety measures being use by the district.
“Three years ago, the state implemented the requirement that schools hold safety drills for a variety of scenarios, including active shooter, bomb threat, and evacuation drills, as well as continuing fire drills. A safety drill is anything other than a fire drill. We hold different drills at each school once a month. We hold drills that go above and beyond what is mandated by code. We learned something new at every drill we hold-our procedures are different than when we began them three years ago.”
He gave the example of a lesson learned at one of the earlier drills — that the police all entered through the front door. “We learned that is not what we want. We want the police to enter through multiple doors. We are constantly devising new scenarios for drills, so that we are prepared, as best we can, for every possibility. We also want to make sure that kids and staff are not viewing these as routine, and continue to take them seriously. We will get to the point where we do not tell the school staff in advance when we are going to hold a drill, so that we can ensure that they are all doing the right things.”
Aderhold noted that “officers from both West Windsor and Plainsboro are present at all of our drills. We have memoranda of understanding with both departments, but, more importantly we have excellent relations with the police departments. We involve them in all of our training, all of our decisions. They are an integral part of our safety measures.”
“We will be having additional conversations with fire departments. Many of the fire and building codes are in direct violation with safety codes, and we need to resolve that issue. I have contacted county and state officials about this as well to see how we can address this. Many of our doors cannot lock from the inside, due to fire code rules. There are now doors that have special locking mechanisms that work for both fire and safety codes. We would need to retrofit many of the doors in each school. This will be expensive. Enhancing our safety measures will definitely need to be part of our budget conversations.”
Regarding the issue of placing armed guards in the schools, he noted that there is already a significant police presence in and around the schools. “This is one of the suggestions we are considering. But again this costs money. A lot of our communications systems need to be updated. Is it more important to ensure that the intercom systems are modernized in each school, or that we have an armed guard?” He also noted that enhanced police presence can also have a negative effect on the students and the school atmosphere in general.
He added, “We don’t need to create school safety teams. We have them already in place. We are increasing our communications with parents, and Superintendent Victoria Kniewel will be working with the PTA/PTSAs the keep parents involved.” Aderhold also asked parents to provide him with questions, concerns, and suggestions on the topic of school safety.
One of the parents in attendance, George Borek, who is also Council president in West Windsor, made this suggestion. “As parents, we can all do more as well. If you see something that just doesn’t look right, or feel right, call 9-1-1. Do not be embarrassed, do not be shy — trust your instincts and call the police if something seems ‘off’.”
In his role as Council president, Borek contacted State Senator Linda Greenstein to ask her to present legislation that would allow school districts who want to impose enhanced safety measures to have that spending exempted from the two percent budget cap. “That way schools won’t have to decide between education and school safety,” Borek said.
Plainsboro Police Chief Guy Armour echoed many of Aderhold’s statements . “We work very closely with the school district and the West Windsor police. All of us have the same priorities. We are looking how to revise the safety protocols already in place with our kids’ safety in mind, but also by keeping the school campuses as normal as possible.
“In Plainsboro, in addition to the drills we participate in with the school staff and the kids, we hold drills while the schools are vacant. Twice annually, we hold active shooter drills at the schools. We use different scenarios, and actually use simulations, ammunition that is similar to paint balls. Of course we have other training as well. Officers are assigned to every school in Plainsboro both public and private, such as preschools and daycare centers. We also cover large office buildings, which might be a shooter’s target.”
Armour added that “we now hold combined drills [with WW police]. We are each other’s primary back-up in the case of emergencies, so it is important that we drill together.”
He also described the Plainsboro police presence in the schools. “We have our DARE officers in Millstone from January to June, which offers enhanced protection there. We now have assignment codes that show how often a police officer is inside or outside a school. There are eight to ten police contacts at the schools per day. Of course the visits are random, but there is an increased presence during morning drop-off and pick-up.”
Armour noted that the police departments serve as advisors or consultants to the district. “One of our recommendations is to construct broader drills to test our capabilities.maybe doing a drill without announcing it in the morning, having less preparedness to ensure people are following their training. We need to ‘harden’ our schools to make sure they are not easy targets. We need to make some structural enhancements.
“For example, High School South has security cameras. We are looking at whether we should install them in all of the schools. We need to make sure that all visitors’ first stop is at the schools’ main offices. We are working with the administrators, school staff, and teachers to improve upon the safety practices already in place.”
Armour had another suggestion: “We need more early intervention-training [for police and school personnel] to identify kids at risk of being involved in this type of behavior to begin with, and working with them.” On the issue of whether there should be armed guards in schools, Armour noted that “this is not a new concept-we discussed this proposal 20 years ago. It is being considered in many jurisdictions in New Jersey.”
Lieutenant Robert Garofalo from the West Windsor police department agreed that “the police act as consultants to the school system, and advise them on safety matters. We are in constant contact with school officials, and participate in all of their drills — both the planning and the implementation. There is always room for improvement, but we are very pleased with the district’s safety measures and support their policies.”
“We work with the schools in a variety of ways. We participate in the drills. We bring our SWAT team, our canine units. We give demonstrations with these units. We work with the superintendent and the administrators to offer Internet safety lectures to parents. We assign police cars to go to the fire drills. And we hold trainings when the schools are empty. We train for shootings at each school. Our tactical teams and our officers train on how to best enter the schools and neutralize the shooter.”
“We have a large presence at the schools. Our DARE officers are at Village every day and officers make random visits to the schools. Our juvenile officers go into the schools frequently just to say hi to the kids, so that the students and the staff come to recognize them and feel comfortable with them. They will go to the cafeteria and each lunch with the kids. We drive by the schools every day, especially during drop-off and pick-up times. For instance, last week we pulled over several drivers at High School South for passing in front of a bus that had its lights flashing.”
Added Garofalo: “We are also in constant contact with the Plainsboro PD. We work with each other, train together, and have an excellent relationship with them. Some of our operations are different from theirs, so we train together so that we all on the same page to protect the schools.”
Despite these efforts, parents Peter Perla and Eris Carmel, co-founders of the WWP Parents for Safer Schools, continue to advocate for greater safety protocols in each of the district schools, including having armed guards at each of the schools during school hours, and providing safe rooms, complete with bullet-proof glass, in each of the schools. (See list of proposals below.)
She added that she has “met with Lt. Garofalo and Dr. Aderhold, to discuss our suggestions. Lt. Garofalo was very supportive, and even promised to attend one of our group’s meetings. We want to be a part of the process, a part of the dialogue. We are offering to help out during the budget process to make these ideas a reality.”
Carmel has also met with officials from other schools, such as Marlboro and Passaic. “Marlboro has started a pilot program with several new safety features, including having off-duty armed police in each of its eight schools. Passaic schools have had armed guards in their schools for the past eight years, and it has been working very well,” she added.
Carmel has lived in West Windsor for the past three years. “We moved here specifically “for the schools.” Her older daughter attends Dutch neck School. Her father, a math professor at Rutgers University, has lived in West Windsor since the 1980s. Carmel herself spent several of her formative years in Israel. “There are armed guards every in Israel where children are present, and it makes everyone feel more secure. I know that many parents here are opposed to the idea of having guards in our schools, but it is something you get used to and it helps keep the children safer.”
#b#Safety Suggestions#/b#
WWP Parents for Safer Schools has circulated a list of proposed security measures it is trying to advance. “We are aware that while some of these measures would be fairly easy and inexpensive to implement, others will take more resources and may not be as unanimously received,” says spokesperson Eris Carmel.
“We do not have an ‘all or nothing’ type of group,” Carmel says. “We would be happy to see any additional safety measures adopted with the ultimate goal of making our schools as safe as possible. Security measures we propose:
1.) Re-training the office staff re: visitor management procedures. Establish clear entry rules for visitors, parents and vendors. When buzzing in to gain entrance must be one person at a time and no one is allowed to hold door for next person.
2.) Minimize time of students waiting outside for school bus, and time for entering and exiting of school busses to 10 minutes. School doors locked immediately following entry of students.
3.) All schools have single point of entry, for students, teachers and visitors.
4.) During school hours the only way into the school is through a remote controlled door (double door system is preferable). You are only admitted if recognized through the closed circuit system.
5.) ID. All visitors must show ID to gain entry. ID scanned and checked with sex offender or ‘do not admit’ database.
6.) Silent Panic Alert button — alerting police with one press of an intruder similar to that of a bank.
7.) Cameras that capture a larger area (other than just directly in front of the intercom). Video coverage of the parking lot and approaches of the building.
8.) Windows and doors should be more secure and sturdy. The doors should be solid metal doors with metal bars/dead bolts. No windows in the door.
9.) Every classroom has electronic locks that are engaged during school hours. Only the teachers and administration can open them from the outside with a keypad combination. All doors can be exited by pushing on them in the event of a fire.
10.) Metal bars/dead bolts on all classroom doors (in case of lock down) to prevent easy break of class doors.
11.) Make school classrooms “safe rooms” — break in/bullet resistant so children and staff have a safe place to seek refuge. One to three central rooms in each school or safe closet in each class (bullet proof with metal bar).
12.) Metal detectors are in place at all entry points and are required for any visitor going through. Random days when students are required to use them, also, as well as random searches of packs, lockers, etc. (a staff person to be stationed at all school front doors)
13.) Increased security measures at EDP points of entry.
14.) Drop down gates at strategic locations.
15.) School resource officer at every school (off duty/retired police officer or full-time officer).
Police:
1.) Monitor daily at arrival and departure times and special events.
2.) Uniformed officers to frequent the schools and also check and test the current security procedures that are in place.
3.) Increased uniform and non-uniform presence in all schools randomly attending each school and looking at their current security measures.
4.) Alert procedure with school.
5.) Training of school personnel.
WWP Parents for Safer Schools. Facebook page: www.facebook.com/WWP.SafeSchools. E-mail: wwpsafeschools@gmail.com.
