District plans meeting to talk about school safety

Fla. school shooting provides impetus

North Allegheny School District will hold an informational meeting on school safety at 7 p.m. Monday at Marshall Middle School.

A town hall, similar to those held on school start times, was one of the items requested by a group of parents at the Feb. 21 school board meeting, which occurred one week after 17 people were killed — 14 of them students — in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

“Events that happened last week in Florida are a grim reminder that guns are making their way into our schools,” said Karen Rusnica, who has children at McKnight Elementaryand Carson Middle schools.

Board president Kevin Mahler also addressed the Parkland incident.

“Unfortunately, this is neither the first, nor I fear, the last act of violence inschools across the nation,” he said. “I also want to take this opportunity to assure everyone that the safety of our students and staff remains our numberone priority.”

Mr. Mahler listed some of the moves made by the district during the past few years, including Critical Incident Response Training through INPAX, along with “Stop the Bleed” training through UPMC.

The district also has ramped up security in its buildings, including captured vestibules and background checks for volunteers. The security is in place during the school day, but not for after-school activities.

The group of parents who spoke last week added their own suggestions, including hiring school resource officers and installing metal detectors.

Mrs. Rusnica noted that other area schools, including Mars Area and Seneca Valley, have metal detectors.

Josh Schwoebel, director of communications for Mars Area, said the district installed metal

detectors at the high school and middle school in September 1999, five months after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

All students in the two schools — grades 7-12 — pass through the metal detectors and submit to bag searches when they arrive at school every morning. All visitors to the high school also must pass through the metal detectors.

Seneca Valley uses portable wands. “As such, we are able to schedule random, unannounced uses of them at our three different buildings on our secondary campus in Jackson Township, grades 7-12, throughout the year,” said Linda Andreassi, director of communications. “We do not use them every day,”

McCandless Councilwoman Carolyn Schweiger, chair of the public safety committee, told the North Allegheny board that the police department welcomes the opportunity to talk with the district about school resource-officers.

Parents also noted the need for better communication when something does occur.

Seana Frederick said when an incident occurred with social media at Carson Middle School this year, parents were only told that “it was taken care of.”

“There wasn’t anything to tell me how to protect my child, how to talk to my child. It was swept under the rug,” she said.

Mrs. Frederick said Hempfield Area School District sent a letter to all parents when a middle school there was closed because of a threat.

“The letter that I saw from that district was wonderful. It reassured what they were going to do to make the parents and students feel safe,” she said.

Seneca Valley, Mars Area and Hempfield Area, among others, released letters after the Parkland shooting that gave resource information to parents, Mrs. Frederick said. “All we got was a little blurb on the school webpage that, a lot of times, we don’t have time to check.”

Mr. Mahler pointed out the school climate survey showed that more than 90 percent of students feel safe in the buildings.

“The bad news is that not all students share that view — and a substantial number see evidence of bullying and related negative behaviors,” he said.