Keeping our kids safe in schools

Area districts are reassessing security in the aftermath of the latest school shooting tragedy.

You can set your watch by it. Another shooting incident occurs at an American school.

This time it was Parkland, Fla. A troubled young man with an AR-15 strolled into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire. Before he fled, 17 people were dead, most of them students.

The reverberations from those gunshots quickly roll across the nation.

The question every parent has is the same: Is my child safe when they in the one place we just assume they are shielded from the evils in the world – in their schools?

And are our schools doing enough to be sure that is the case?

We hug our loved ones just a little tighter as we send them off to school, trying desperately not to let them see our angst, our concern that something we once took for granted is no longer the case: That when we send our children off to school each day we can be confident they will return home safe and sound later that day.

We asked questions after Columbine. We shed tears after the “slaughter of the innocents” at Sandy Hook. And we were shocked again at the carnage in Parkland.

But we also were something else: Angry.

We are asking questions about what is being done to protect our loved ones, and is it enough.

One of the first in the region to weigh in was Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood, who firmly believes it is time to consider arming some volunteer teachers and school personnel. Chitwood stressed this would only be voluntary and only after those selected undergo intense training.

As you might expect, it sparked a good bit of conversation, much of its shooting down the idea as absurd.

Even Upper Darby Mayor Tom Micozzie weighed in, noting that this was not a decision for the township, but rather one that lies with the school district.

Parents again are asking hard questions of school boards across the region in the wake of what happened in Parkland.

Schools are reviewing their safety protocols and communicating them to families.

We are approaching nearly 20 years since those heavily armed students turned Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., into a killing field.

Here in the suburbs, it sparked district attorneys to start holding annual Safe Schools Summits. As a result, many schools in our region have made great strides in beefing up security.

But the killing goes on. So does the concern.

In the days after the Parkland horror, several local school districts took great care in reassuring parents to the measures initiated to keep kids safe.

Rose Tree Media Superintendent Jim Wigo admitted he devoted his report at last week’s school board meeting to review the district’s procedures in the wake of numerous emails and phone calls from the community.

Wigo reviewed something that is now commonplace across the county; schools routinely hold monthly drills on lockdown procedures in the event of an incident at the school.

He also took the time to remind both parents and students to the first rule in school safety – being alert and speaking up if they see something out of the ordinary or learn of a possible threat to the school.

Wigo also called on the school board to expand a recent contract to review the district’s buildings in respect to the safety.

“Our schools were built in a very different time,” Wigo said. “We simply must look at upgrading our security systems without turning our buildings into armed camps.”

In Upper Darby, the district planned a thorough review of safety measures for their 14 school buildings.

Approximately 12,000 students attend Upper Darby schools, including the 3,000plus who converge on Upper Darby high every day, turning it into the equivalent of a small town.

Similar meetings and concerns are being debated in West Chester and across the region.

Columbine shocked us. Sandy Hook numbed us. Maybe Stoneman Douglas will galvanize us.

The movement is already well underway.