SECURITY LAPSE
District in upheaval over security guard walkout
TRENTON >> An early-morning bomb scare that forced the evacuation of a Trenton Central High School branch campus has quickly turned into another political grenade for the capital city’s powerful teachers union to throw at Superintendent Fred McDowell.
The bomb scare blew up in McDowell’s face because it occurred the same day of a district-wide security guard “walkout” that left city leaders scrambling and the teachers union fuming.
Police continue to investigate who made the call as speculation has run rampant about whether the bomb threat – which turned out to be a hoax – may have been a well-orchestrated plot to make McDowell, who is disliked by a large swath of educational stakeholders over a highly charged merit pay flap that has landed the district in court, look worse.
“I have my own opinion,” Mayor Reed Gusciora told The Trentonian in a phone interview late Friday. “But I’ll wait for the investigation to play out. Of course, I think it’s highly suspect and coincidental that there’s a bomb scare the same day that some security officers walk off the job.”
The walkoff mushroomed into a huge controversy following Friday morning’s bomb threat, which followed a heavy snowstorm that dumped several inches on the Trenton area.
The flap, involving two feuding security firms locked in litigation, led the mayor to summon school leaders and Board of Education representatives, along with police brass and the city’s legal team, into a meeting later in the day to determine what steps must be taken to ensure schools are secure in the days and weeks ahead.
“This is absolutely unacceptable by school administration,” said Gusciora, who also met with school leaders at the ninth-grade academy earlier in the day to discuss the royal screw-up.
The mayor indicated the city would move Monday to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Motivated Security Group against Patriot Security Group that has effectively left Trenton schools without a security provider while the lawsuit proceeds.
The controversy had already started to grow legs late Thursday, when the leader of the Trenton Education Association sent a letter to the superintendent that night, calling the fact that schools citywide would be without security guards for at least part of Friday “another dark cloud over the district.”
Teachers union boss Twanda Taylor blamed “poor planning and preparation” for continuing to “plague the Trenton Public Schools.”
People were buzzing online about the lack of security guards at Trenton Public Schools.
“Everyone that have children that go to Trenton Public Schools, they not gonna have security at none of the schools tomorrow or the next day,” Tnita Donaldson wrote in an earlier Facebook post. “God have mercy on all our kids. They lost the contract. All this shooting going on in this town and they want to take the only thing that keeps these kids a little bit safe in school away. I hope they have cops at every school unitl they find out what else they’re gonna do. Everyone [who] have children please share. It’s no security going to be at the schools tomorrow. They taken people jobs away. Please help them I pray.”
Trenton Police ended up stepping up as last-second replacements to man schools as the contract dispute left it up in the air which security provider will ultimately be responsible for keeping Trenton schools safe in the weeks and months ahead.
However, no one escaped the wrath of Gusciora, normally a mild-mannered mayor who has cultivated a reputation so far in his short tenure of being an appeaser, to a fault.
He was vociferously criticized for bowing to the will of City Council when he quickly abandoned his push to keep former police director Pedro Medina on for another three months.
But this time, he slammed school officials for the communication gaffe and chastised the district’s security vendor, Patriot, for potentially putting Trenton students in peril at a time when there has been a rash of high-profile school shootings across the country.
Asked whether heads may roll in the school district over the security guard flap, the mayor wouldn’t rule it out.
“We’re going to have that conversation. But it is completely unacceptable to me that they treated this nonchalantly. This can never happen again.”
The teachers union was upset because, for months, school district leaders knew the two security firms involved in a bidding war to win the district’s security contract were embroiled in an ugly legal tug-of-war over “collusion” allegations.
Yet, school officials, pulled into the middle of it all, did little to craft a backup plan to account for an expiring court order that Gusciora said left students, parents and teachers “in the lurch.”
In the letter to McDowell obtained by this newspaper, Taylor, the TEA president, cautioned the superintendent against attempting to use teachers to “check bookbags and become metal detector checkers” when classes resume.
McDowell, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, faced a load of criticism after the district was caught flat-footed when someone phoned in the unfounded bomb scare that forced police to evacuate TCHS’ visual and performing arts campus on Chestnut Avenue.
Police dogs cleared the campus of explosives, but the damage was done.
The mayor was perturbed he hadn’t gotten any advance warning from McDowell or board president Gene Bouie until they contacted him early Friday morning, as classes were underway.
The mayor first learned about the contract dispute when he was contacted by the TEA late Thursday night.
“I’m disappointed that we weren’t told in advance
that there was a problem with the security contract and that we were not given the opportunity by the Board to try to rectify the situation before it became problematic,” Gusciora said in a statement released Friday morning. “Once we settle the security problem, I’ll be inquiring from the board how we got into this situation without any notification going to City Hall. This cannot happen again. The security of the school children is too important to allow any gaps in coverage.”
McDowell blamed Patriot for not having “reserve funds” to pay employees while locked in litigation with Motivated, Gusciora said.
The superintendent told the mayor the school district hired a new security company that was “more stable” but it hadn’t begun working.
Officials from the Trenton Education Association said they were given little concrete information about the contract dispute when they met the superintendent McDowell’s leadership team this morning.
Missing-in-action McDowell did not attend the meeting, TEA officials said. He and Bouie also shrugged off the meeting later Friday with the mayor at City Hall.
The teachers union told members in an email sent out later in the day that it didn’t believe the district gave any advance warning to parents and students about the expected lapse in security guards.
The message was apparently relayed to principals who were left with the task of notifying parents and students, the TEA said.
“That’s not the principals’ job,” TEA grievance chair Janice Williams said. “That’s the district’s job.”
Naomi Johnson-Lafleur, former TEA president and current health and safety chairwoman for the union, in an email obtained by The Trentonian, wrote to members to advise them against trying to compensate for the lack of security guards.
“While building principals may call on you to be team players, do not assume security guard roles. Do not screen students entering the building in the morning. Do not act as school crossing guards. Do not put yourself at risk breaking up fights. Please keep in mind that 1) if you grant entry to a student who is later found to bring a weapon into the building that you could be held responsible, 2) you may not be covered if you are hurt performing a task that is not part of your job description, and 3) you could easily become party to a IAIU/DYFS complaint if a student accuses you of causing harm or injury by coming into close proximity with him/ her,” she wrote.
Williams, the TEA representative, blasted school leadership for once again getting caught on their heels.
“The parents in this community should be outraged that we’re being reactionary again,” the TEA grievance chair said. “Who’s on first? Who’s on second? And this man [McDowell] wants $24,000 in merit pay.”