Big crowd turns out to talk safety in West Chester Area schools

WEST WHITELAND » The echoes from the latest mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., are being heard loud and clear in Chester County.

Monday night’s West Chester Area School Board meeting was a little bit different than most.

Typically, no one from the audience chooses to speak during the public comment portion of meetings and there are usually more empty seats than full ones.

Monday, the meeting room was packed, with many students attending. A handful of speakers from the audience chose to talk about gun violence in the schools.

Michel Scully is the father of three Glen Acres Elementary School students and told Superintendent Dr. James Scanlon and the nine-member board that a safety plan needs to be developed quickly.

“There is no perfect way, we just have to work toward a better plan,” Scully said. “I don’t think anything can be corrected overnight. It can be a crummy plan, but when something happens at a school, the kids know where to go, where to run.”

Scully was responding to the recent incident in Florida where 17 students and

teachers were gunned down by a student Feb. 14 by a troubled student who had previously been expelled from the school.

Scanlon told the concerned parents that the school district had been working on school safety for more than a decade.

“I am a parent, I have kids in these schools,” Scanlon told the 100 people who gathered for the board meeting.

He noted that district schools have added additional cameras that allow some school hallways to be monitored by police online. A new phone system, with a $700,000 price tag, also was purchased.

Scanlon estimated that security measures at all district schools akin to what is used at many airports would cost in the neighborhood of $38 million.

“If we want to do airport security we can certainly do that,” Scanlon said.

The superintendent said that some have questioned whether students should even go outside for recess and whether the school should provide so much security measures that learning becomes “scary.”

Prevention is key, Scanlon said.

Mental health services are ongoing and 179 students have participated in suicide-risk assessments.

“If we can get to troubled kids before they can get into trouble, we can avoid something,” Scanlon said. “We may have already prevented a catastrophe by doing those things.”

It’s not a perfect world, the superintendent freely admitted.

“Are we absolute?” Scanlon asked. “We are not. Are we doing things better to keep kids safe? We are.”

Scanlon said the district continues to work closely with police, and that live shooter drills are held regularly

in the schools. Administrative officers, resource officers and staff have been trained.

School Broad President Chris McCune said more needs to be done.

“There are no guarantees but there are measures we can take,” McCune said. “The issue of gun control has left the barn.”

Resident Janey Wolff spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and urged that change come sooner rather than later.

“It’s not simple, but it’s doable,” she said. “We need to get as creative as we can to come up with those funds.”

Colin Kelly also spoke from the audience and told the board and school staffers that they have a leg up on parents because they work with students every day in the classroom.

“Even if laws changed, gun violence would not end

right away,” Kelly said. “We can’t wait for state legislators to magically do it. It is for us as a school district to implement a plan.”

In other news, Scanlon also said that students will not be disciplined if they take part in the March 14 student walkout to recognize the Florida victims. No student is required to participate in the action.

Parents will not be allowed to enter the campus, with schools locked down. Police will be present.

Students will be required to return to class following 17 minutes of silence – one minute for each victim of the Parkland shooting. Afterwards, it will be “business as usual, as well as it can be,” Scanlon said.

Also, a March 8 event will be held at East High School. Five legislators, including U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6, will address what Scanlon expects to be a large audience. Tickets will be released online.