CLARKS SUMMIT - Two area school districts have taken different stances on school safety, following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month.
School board officials in the Lakeland and Abington Heights school districts met Wednesday to evaluate different safety measures to implement at their schools. The meetings followed a Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 27 people including 20 elementary school students.
Students in the Abington Heights School District likely won't see armed officers patrolling the hallways. But that doesn't mean the district's school board is not taking a hard look at ways they can improve school security - without turning the school into a "fortress."
"We take security very seriously here, but we need to take a comprehensive approach to this matter," district Superintendent Michael Mahon, Ph.D., said at a work session Wednesday night. "Remember, these are schools, not fortresses. We cannot take actions that make our kids afraid to come to school."
In Lakeland, an armed school resource officer has been working in the high school since February. Additional officers were added to both elementary schools following Sandy Hook.
Without divulging any specifics, Dr. Mahon assured the audience the board is considering a number of safety measures. He said the improvements won't be limited to the building's security.
"We have been training our staff, faculty and administration in conflict resolution," he said.
While Lakeland has additional resource officers now it could be temporary.
They will remain in place at least until Jan. 18, but the board did not address how adding officers could be financed. The budget will be reviewed a work session Tuesday.
"I think we need to find the money to keep this job in tact," board member Casey Patuk said. "I don't think taking the SROs out of the elementary is an option."
Audience members raised questions about the enforcement of the door buzzer system, name badges for visitors and students and frequency of active shooter drills.
"It's really stopped us in our tracks and now we're rethinking everything," board President Mary Retzbach said of Sandy Hook. She added that there had been several meetings about ensuring a secure campus.
Board member Jill Yoniski also asked how the guidance department was prepared to work with students in need. District Superintendent Margaret Billings-Jones, Ed.D., explained that staff are equipped to assess and refer students to appropriate professionals and conversations about safety had been ongoing over the last several years.
"We encourage an active partnership to identify threats in the community," she said. To make an anonymous tip about a school issue, call 254-9976.
"It's a community problem, not just a school problem," audience member Rob O'Donnell said.
Contact the writers: miorfino@timesshamrock.com, rbrown@timesshamrock.com, @miorfinoTT, @rbrownTT