Mom, PTO official pleads for armed, trained guards
Good guys with guns will protect Blue Mountain school children, PTO mom Cherie Dunkel-Hoysock insisted at a school board meeting Thursday night.
“A bad guy with a gun never plans to shoot up any building that occupies more than one good guy with a gun,” Hoysock asserted in proposing that the board put volunteers from the community with guns in schools.
Her plea came two days after 19 students and two teachers were killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Ulvalde, Texas.
According to Hoysock, it was the 27th school shooting this year and the 243rd since two teens killed 13 people and wounded 20 more at Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999, the year she graduated from high school.
“We can no longer go on thinking it will never happen here,” said Hoysock, vice president of the Blue Mountain EastWest Elementary PTO. “We need to take precautionary measures now.”
Hoysock’s plan would have the schools guarded by armed volunteers selected from a pool of retired military, law enforcement officers, hunters and school district staff and teachers.
They would receive training from FASTER Saves Lives, an Ohio nonprofit organization that she said has trained some 3,000 volunteers in 18 states.
“Our teachers and staff want to go home to their own families at night, too,” she said. “We need to do more now, and not just talk about it.”
Michelle Z. Vesay, school board president, thanked Hoysock for her presentation. She asked Hoysock to give information on her proposal to the board for its consideration.
David W. Lafko, a board member, gave reassurances that the district’s schools are safe.
“We have significantly upgraded security in our schools,” he said. “We’re comfortable with what’s being done.”
Armed security staff in the schools, he said, have received training by state police and FBI agents.
On Thursday, the board approved the installation of a Vicon camera and security system at Blue Mountain East-West Elementary School, currently under construction in Friedensburg. The contract was awarded to Guyette Communications Industries at a cost of $82,598.
Rocks to revolvers
In her presentation, Hoysock referred to a novel 2018 safety initiative by David H. Heisel, superintendent, that put a bucket of river rocks in each classroom. Students were to pummel a gunman with rocks should the occasion arise.
Five years later, Hoysock said rocks are no longer enough.
“Our district can ask for volunteers who, without a doubt, would stand between a murderer and the children in our schools,” she said. “I personally would volunteer to set this into motion any way possible.”
Hoysock said she talked with other parents, teachers and others willing to assist.
On Thursday, she talked to Joe Eaton, program director at Faster Saves Lives.
A few years ago, Eaton made a presentation to the Tamaqua Area school board, which after initially approving a policy that would have allowed teachers to carry weapons in school, abandoned the policy.
Faster Saves Lives, she said, offers training that includes firearms, trauma and medical aspects. A three-day training course would cost $1,000 per person, with the cost of the first five people covered by a grant.
Other options Hoysock outlined include installing bulletproof doors and glass on school buildings; putting in cameras with a live feed to the local sheriff ’s office; and having teachers wear fobs with panic buttons. An app called LifeSpot, she said, sends information from a cellphone directly to law enforcement, reducing response time.
“We are asking that something be done to protect our schools,” she said. “Our kids need to be kids and feel safe.”
Hoysock concluded with the hope that when school resumes in fall, there would be a sign on the front doors of Blue Mountain schools that reads: “This school employs an armed and trained response team to protect students and staff in accordance with PA Title 18-912.”