Superintendent Sills Speaks About Changes to School Security Following Newtown Shootings

December 19, 2012

By Kim Siebert MacPhail

Editor’s Note: Click here to read Superintendent Jon Sills’s  December 20 message to parents regarding school security.

Half a dozen parents came to the School Committee meeting on Tuesday night to learn more about the district’s response to last Friday’s incidents at Sandy Hook Elementary, to praise the Schools’ handling of the situation, and to provide input about security concerns.

Following a moment of silence to honor those lost during the Newtown tragedy, Superintendent Jon Sills directly addressed the matter by describing Bedford’s on-going emergency training programs and by speaking about changes to security measures in the short and long terms.

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“These are frightening times,” Sills began. “Bedford, like every district in the nation, is looking at itself once again, in light of the events last week.”

Sills began by enumerating the different kinds of emergency and crisis training already in place before the Newtown slayings, saying that staff has received training in a wide range of protocols for everything from intruders, weapons, and lock downs tooff-site evacuations and pandemic flu.

“Bedford Schools and the Bedford Police work in close cooperation with several consortia that benefit from federal input, and state input. Training is a key component and we have lockdown drills in all four of our schools every year. Our School Resource Officers (SROs) were a response to school safety issues about eight years ago that were originally funded by a grant and are now funded through the budget. They go for training all the time and bring back that knowledge to our staff and schools. . . .We do bus safety training, we do restraint training. We’re constantly working on how to train.

“It’s important not to be just reactive but also proactive.  So, we’ve done a periodic review of our procedures. About six years ago we began an examination and the determination was that we needed to do a more in-depth study of what our responses should be. We created a task force and began to look at security and safety issues at each of our schools.”

The task force, Sills said, began to gather data about the district’s assets, such as anti-bullying programs. They looked at lighting, locking exterior doors, swipe card entry and the like. They looked at each school separately and they surveyed parents. They tried to break down the issues and weigh the pros and cons of different practices.

Recommendations were made, for example, that staff wear badges and that all doors other than the front doors would be locked. These measures, though periodically evaluated, were enough—until last week.

“Then Friday happened and we had to stop and reflect on what we could do better and what kind of process we should put in place and what the timeframe would be,” Sills said.

Upon learning about Newtown, immediate action was taken, according to Sills.

“The first thing we tried to identify is what the tone was that we wanted to set in how we responded because tone is important—a message of calm and confidence as opposed to panic and anxiety. Communication was critical—we sent out talking points for parents about how to talk with your children about this disturbing, traumatic event. We met with the police and the chair of the School Committee and established a crisis team. We asked for increased police patrols, but without alarming the kids. We asked the parent association of Lane and Davis Schools to help by creating a group of volunteers to open the front doors of the elementary schools so we could keep them locked but have somebody there, but have it be friendly.”

“We planned with each school how they would respond on Monday as each school was different.  At Davis, nothing was said;it was very low key and business as usual. At Lane, the principal instructed the staff not to bring up the subject, but if a kid brought it up, to respond. [In a]bout 75% of the classes, kids did bring it up and they just responded. At JGMS and the high school, Mr. Tracey and Mr. Turner made heartfelt and thoughtful presentations to the whole school and offered the availability of counselors for those who were struggling with emotions.”

Sills continued, saying that the final response is to establish, again, a task force to recommend how to move forward. He said he would ask the parent organizations to put forward a parent representative from each school who could meet with the staff within a tight timeframe beginning on January 7, reporting results to him by February 14.

Recommendations might include whether additional personnel was needed to improve security or if cameras or other technology was necessary. Sills has also asked that each principal hold a roundtable discussion so that more parents can inform the process.

Several parents spoke about how their children either knew or didn’t know about the events in Newtown and how they reacted, if they knew.In some cases, they offered words of praise about how the schools handled the difficult situation. One parent urged the Superintendent and the School Committee to err on the side of caution to overcome students’ fears, at least for the first few weeks.

Another parent, however, voiced concerns, specifically about Davis School, and said she would like to see improved staff interaction with visitors upon entering the school.

Finally, one mother lamented how much the world has changed.

“It would be wonderful if school could be just like it was when we were all small and you could just walk in [to a school] and there was no danger. Unfortunately, the danger has increased enough that we now need to create a safe and comfortable environment for our kids to learn in. We need to shift the way we think to reflect the times.”

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