School Board Meeting

[KeepItPositive]

Concerned parents shared their opinion with the school board last night.  They are worried about their kid's safety.  This topic isn't  going to go away like you probably hoped it would Mr. White.  Parents want action and are not happy with you or how the school handled the situation. What is the School Board going to do?  Listen to the retired superintendent or listen to the voters and parents?!!!

http://www.monroenews.com/news/2013/jan/03/bedford-addresses-security-concerns/

[Alkera]

Amen Mr. Positive!  And for your information, I wrote (and shared on here) a letter to the Bedford Board of Education and Interim Superintendent White and Assistant Superintendent Manuzak about my concern for my grandchildren and other children's safety at Bedford following the CT school shooting.  The ONLY two people who responded to my letter were Board President Mike Smith and Vice-President Tim Brakel.  I am very disappointed that the two highest paid school adminstrators couldn't find the time to do the same sometime in the past three weeks.   

[KeepItPositive]

Oh and get this, Bedford Public Schools are hiring TEN door monitors to meet and greet visitors into each school building daily.  The monitors will earn $9.00 an hour.  So let's do the math:  $9.00 an hour X 7 hours a day X 10 monitors = $630.00 A DAY!  And where will the school find the money to pay for this?  They didn't have enough money for the second deputy and cut him. They could get two more police officers in the schools each day at that price!  Maybe  It's a "feel good" reaction to have locked doors monitored by an unarmed, non-uniformed person.  But the harsh reality is that locked doors do not stop a shooter.  The Newton, CT shooter burst through their locked doors and shot and killed dozens.  He stopped when police arrived and shot himself.  Only an armed uniformed police presence is going to stop this potential violence.  When are you people going to realize this?

[StopTheBurning]

This appears to be one of those feel good exercises.  An unarmed monitor at one door at each school is not going to prevent a crazy that broke into the Newtown school from doing harm.   What are these people thinking?  And keeping the second officer at the JR HI is not going to prevent any of the same situation at the elementary schools either..

[randysehl]

I understand your concerns StopTheBurning.  However, I must add that the second deputy sheriff (I) was only stationed and officed out of the junior high school building.  I spent a good amount of time at the elementary buildings each day to promote a high visible police presence. 

[StopTheBurning]

Yeah, I guess i knew that Randy because I would read about your involvement in activities at the schools.  That would be a deterrent not knowing which school you were going to be and when.  At the least the schools might install cameras at the entrances with a monitor in the office.  Unfortunately these attacks aren't going to stop.  A few minutes warning might save lives.

[OnTheRun]

The individuals who are monitoring the doors are retired teachers or substitute aides until they put it up for bid.  This, I believe will be temporary until the  board seeks other alternatives such as buzzards or key card passes.  These are individuals who do not have the training nor the resources to stop someone from forcefully entering the school.  These people are putting themselves in direct line of potential harm.  A friend had mentioned about hiring national guard reserves  who are not on active duty or retired military. which I think is a wonderful idea. These individuals are trained to handle potential deadly situations.  I have several family members who are in the National Guard and are currently not in active duty who would love to get some pay beween their assigments.  I am sure the cost would not be as great as hiring an on duty police officer. These are just some ideas that could be discussed and easily implemented.

[bedford wife]

This is, without exception, the dumbest thing I have ever heard.  I am disgusted that this knee jerk reaction is the solution put forward to deal with this.  1.  If someone wants to come into any, any of our schools firing a weapon, they are GOING to get in, our entry ways have glass in them, an unarmed monitor is not going to stop that.  2.  I would never(I AM exmilitary, MP corps initially) take a guard position of anydamnkind where there was even a remote chance of a threat and I could not be effectively armed.  Just because someone has military or law enforcement experience, does absolutly not mean they are going to be effective, unless any of you consider the second it would take to snuff out said "monitors" life as a true stop gap measure.  I saw that this is only a temporary measure until the entry ways can be up graded...are we then replacing how the entries look and what they are made of?  Are we removing the many, many glass windows? I could get through them like a hot knife through butter if I wanted to breach any of the schools here.  I value my kids way more than 9.00 per hour, if you think that this position is in any way, shape, or form the answer, you put a 9.00 per hour price on your child and please don't even bother with the indignant responses!  This is a big ole fat pacifier to those of you too ignorant to demand an effective solution!
EVERYONE knows what the solution is....these are OUR schools, that board is individually and collectively OUR employee....demand, insist, jump up and down and in general throw a hissy fit, but put the correct solution in place, not a "look good" knee jerk reaction!

[StopTheBurning]

I'm not sure there are any fool proof solutions that make sense.  I'm guessing a SWAT vehicle and a couple of SWAT guys at each school in the country might work but are we going to live like they did in East Germany?

[PackersFan]

BW...what is the effective solution then?

[bedford wife]

PF...there is no 100% solution.  What we need to think about are those things that are effective in mitigating  the fall out of a possible situation.  I would propose the following:

1.  I always hear about how the "gunman" was weird, or anti social, or other things, we need to quit being so politically correct about our youth and recognize and verbalize that some kids are dangerous or potenially dangerous.  Our schools need to integrate with community mental health in a much more effective manner.

2.  We need to bring back the other SRO.  Having those two bodies is important.  I would not have them use a marked vehicle and I would make part of being an SRO contingent upon SWAT training.  Having that level of training certainly changes the way you respond and how able you are to coordinate other first responders.

3.  I also think our schools are very, very lax in safety...we don't drill enough with these kids so they really aren't developing muscle memory to effectively preserve their life in the event of an emergency.  I would love to really see our SWAT force do simulation drills in our schools.  We should not let anyone but admin know these are drills.  Parents need to suck that up in the interest of making our schools safer by making sure our first responders have first hand knowledge.  I would present a "lessons learned" training event for everyone involved after the drill.

4.  I do believe that school personnel should have the option of being armed.  The training you go through, along with the reinforcement you should do to develope your own muscle memory makes you an effective protector.  The reality is that these instances of violence never happen when their is even a slight chance that a potential victum is armed. 

5.  I would love to see a student/parent/law enforcement task force developed....it can be a tool with many uses. 

6.  I expect our Township, our Sheriff, and our School Super. to get together and realize that issues such as these require a team approach and the benefit overlaps in all areas when the three of them work together.  It should never boil down to one of the entity's funding issue.  The amount of money they are going to spend on the door monitor is money that could have a much bigger impact if spent differently. 

[Hondo]

Nice start BF.  I'm sure the School Board is working with experts and law enforcement to review their response plans. 

A couple of comments in response to your post: 

1.  We need to rethink how we treat mental illness OVERALL, especially in regards to forcibly committing people who are deemed dangerous.  We've closed all of the mental institutions and left very dangerous people out into the public.  You can't be held without consent for what, 24 hrs?

2.  We do not need to bring back the other SRO, unless we commit to having an SRO every day at every school.

3.  I agree that we should do more in regards of safety training and drills for the schools.

4.  I agree that school personnel should have the option of being armed.  Pay them more if they choose to do this.

5.  A student/parent/law enforcement task force wouldn't hurt. 

6.  I agree that with the steps taken by the school board.  However,  you can't build the schools to be a prison and  any person dedicated to doing harm will find a way to get in.  The amount of money they are going to spend on door monitors is negligible.  These monitors would be able to provide a first response, even before any SRO response.   How many children could be saved if they had had an extra couple of minutes to escape?

[randysehl]

BW & Hondo:

1.  Agreed.  I would expect the county Community Mental Health authority should become more involved in K-12 education and provide training for early detection and warning signs.

2.  Agree BW and disagree with Hondo.  Your rationale is that two officers can only be in two different locations at once.  But the argument would then be, that one can only be at one place at one time.  Isn't providing that second officer presence a step in the right direction?  I have already written Senators Levin and Stabenow along with Representative Walberg on asking for federal assistance in securing our schools.  It would take approximately $5 Billion dollars to put a cop in EVERY school in America for one year.  Obviously not every school will need or want one, so the cost would be less.  And to put that in perspective, $5 Billion dollars is approximately one and half days worth of interest on our national debt.  Time to make choices and priorities. 

3. Absolutely.  I think kids should be offered the opportunity to be trained in an active shooter survival plan.

4. Current law does not allow that.  If the law changed, I would support it with some strict guidelines.

5. BPS has a safety committee.  Parents and students should be invited to attend and join the administrators, faculty, staff and law enforcement reps on the committee.

6.  Safety and security is a hot topic whenever school violence occurs.  However everyone seems to get complacent as time goes on.  If the district spends funds on security upgrades they need to be followed regardless of weather conditions, school events or activities, etc.

[Alkera]

Nice start BF.  I'm sure the School Board is working with experts and law enforcement to review their response plans. 

A couple of comments in response to your post: 

1.  We need to rethink how we treat mental illness OVERALL, especially in regards to forcibly committing people who are deemed dangerous.  We've closed all of the mental institutions and left very dangerous people out into the public.  You can't be held without consent for what, 24 hrs?

2.  We do not need to bring back the other SRO, unless we commit to having an SRO every day at every school....

How in the heck are we going to pay for six cops Hondo when they're having a tough time paying for the second one?  Two are better than one and it doubles the current coverage. One of the officers and their cop car might be at an elementary building at any given time and it could make Mr. Bad Guy keep driving on by and hopefully out of Bedford. 

[PackersFan]

As a heads up...

Columbine had an armed guard.