School security plans upgraded yearly to handle the unexpected

School security plans upgraded yearly to handle the unexpected
By RANDI WEINERTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 1, 2007)
A quiet school year usually means one thing to the public and something different to school security.
To the public, it means a time when the fire alarms are scheduled, students are in class most days, and events across the country are the focus of detached coffee-klatsch discussions.
School security officials consider what hasn't happened in addition to what has: Strangers have not been permitted to wander unreported, children were kept safe from predators or criminals, and school evacuations have been without panic or injury.
"It's been an active year in terms of upping our preparation but quiet in terms of response," said Pearl River spokeswoman Sandy Cokeley. "At the elementary and middle level, we've put cameras in all the buildings, greeters at the door to log in everybody who comes into the building. Certain doors are locked. At the high school … we have a security company we use on the campus, we have monitors that walk the halls, cameras … and we conducted drills in all the buildings."
For more than a decade, the state has required schools to have emergency plans in place for any foreseeable occurrence, from a teacher going into labor to a sniper shooting into a kindergarten room. The state also requires the plans to be reviewed each year.
Technology and world events have forced schools to do more than review. With each new security breach - whether mass murder at Virginia Tech or senior pranks like taping alarm clocks to the walls at Hendrick Hudson High School - administrators pull the plans and modify.
"The state requires that you have an emergency plan and that it be reviewed every year," said Leonard Bernstein, North Rockland's coordinator of transportation and emergency management. "It's a lot of stuff, a lot of information, but we take this seriously."
Mary Frascone, whose children attend Ramapo Central schools, said that her district's commitment to safety began long before Sept. 11, 2001, and that it has her complete approval.
"Every building has a security guard and they meet every person who comes in. I feel very secure," she said. "A visible presence is very important to me. I feel when I walk in the building, by them stopping me and asking me who I am ensures that they stop everyone."
Local emergency plan uses have run the gamut, from evacuating a Nanuet school during a bomb hoax in the fall to text messaging 500 people that Nyack High School's graduation would be postponed a day because of thunderstorms.
Several districts used their emergency plan procedures to alert families that someone on the state's sex offender list had moved into the area. North Rockland and Pearl River districts both locked down elementary schools after police reported they were chasing a robber nearby, and East Ramapo schools did a lockdown in the spring when police chased a man accused of invading a Spring Valley home. Superintendent Mitchell Schwartz said the security plan "worked well."
"It was reassuring to see how smoothly it went," Schwartz said.
A barricaded gunman near Clarkstown North High School in the fall meant that police and school officials had to change bus routes and alert students and parents to the change, said Clarkstown Schools Superintendent Margaret Keller-Cogan.
Clarkstown hired a safety consultant this year who evaluated all the schools and recommended several changes, including more drills and training. The district, like others, has locked most outside doors and placed security staff and greeters at the doors that are open. Grant money is being used to install swipe-card monitors on doors to control access.
"It's an unfortunate skill set to have to develop, but the changes in our culture and society have demanded it," Keller-Cogan said.
Cokeley said she borrowed an idea from Scarsdale schools to create bookmarks for staff and parents to tell them what to do in case the school put its emergency response plan into place. The parent bookmarks especially were needed, she said, because school personnel practice their parts in mock disaster drills, something parents don't do.
Rockland's eight public school districts have been changing safety plans as needed. Among the most recent: Nanuet has given walkie-talkies to security staff; South Orangetown will put cameras in all the school buses next year, and it hired a security firm for the front entrance of each school and to patrol the schools before and after hours. A prank fire drill in the spring was an orderly and quickly investigated occurrence, with students back in class in less than half an hour, Schools Superintendent Joseph Zambito said.
North Rockland schools just got in a new batch of potassium iodide pills to protect students and staff from radiation in case of disaster at Indian Point. The district's safety plan includes how to distribute the pills and how often they need to be replaced.
The Nyack district has money in next year's budget for five monitors on elementary school buses, has put cameras on all its buses, permits people to enter the elementary schools only by a buzzer worked from the school office, and is advertising for an independent security company to patrol its middle and high schools. It also upgraded its communication software to make sure community members and parents are alerted by e-mail and text messaging when needed. The text message about graduation worked extremely well, district spokeswoman Gail Fleur said.
East Ramapo, which is creating a new position for next year, a coordinator for security and safety, plans to place security cameras in each of the schools. The district also upgraded its informational alert capability to include computer and text messaging with the original phone calls.