Shooter preparedness a sobering reality for schools in state.
Last weekend’s double mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, reinforced the notion among school officials that they are not planning for what if, but for when.
“These mass shootings are escalating and the public is starting to recognize that any large gathering has risks,” said Stratford Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson, who was the superintendent in Newtown when in December 2012 a gunman stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 firstgraders and six educators.
Since then, staying prepared has become routine.
“Norwalk Public Schools has a longstanding commitment to keeping our students and staff safe under any circumstances,” said Frank Costanzo, chief of school operations for the district.
Costanzo said a school resource officer is assigned to the district in addition to trained security guards at each school that are aided by digital cameras and surveillance equipment. Joe Rios, the district’s school safety coordinator and former police captain, also directs monthly safety drills at each of the schools.
Norwalk has also partnered with Sandy Hook Promise for educational programs in the middle and high schools to support “our ongoing work around social and emotional learning generally, climate and culture, and suicide prevention,” Costanzo said.
“We believe such ongoing proactive work is our best defense against the tragedies of recent,” Costanzo said.
Three Sandy Hook Promise programs will soon launch in Norwalk schools, starting in September with Start With Hello, a 40minute training for students in grades 6 to 12.
Along with fire drills where everyone lines up and files out the door to the nearest corner, at least three times a year at schools like Hall in Bridgeport, students practice sheltering in place, lockdowns and even lockin/lockouts.
In less than 10 seconds at Hall, 20 or more kindergarten students can pile into centuryold, builtin coat closets that are easily concealable.
Elsewhere, active shooter drills are now woven into the fabric of security guard and school resource officer training, with protocols for who to call, where to go, what to do.
Every time a new school is built or extensively remodeled, the whatifs play into how front entrances are designed, how many cameras get installed, what type of glass is used.
Since Sandy Hook, mass shootings have occurred in high schools, concerts, churches, synagogues, offices, government centers, night clubs and shopping centers.
“Unfortunately, this generation of children is growing up with lockdown drills and discussions about how to handle an active shooter encounter,” Robinson said.
In Connecticut, Robinson said strides have been made that put the state ahead of others.
Since 2012, Connecticut has provided $65.3 million worth of funding for security infrastructure at schools across the state. The state also passed laws requiring local and regional school boards to annually review and update safety and security plans. School districts without a plan may be denied state funding.
There has also been gun legislation and background checks that Robinson believes have prevented other shootings.
“Connecticut laws are helping us in so many ways,” she said. Even so, Robinson said, a disturbed individual with an AR15 is going to bypass the best preparation.
As a result, most of what is put in place, she said, is aimed at delaying an intruder until police respond.
Staying ready
State law also requires higher education institutions to annually review security protocol plan with local law enforcement agencies.
Last spring, Board of Regents President Mark Ojakian assembled a public safety task force to review the system’s 17 campuses, address gaps, and make recommendations for improvements.
Led by Chief Joseph Dooley of Southern Connecticut State University, the task force heard from faculty and student advisory committees and reviewed what had been done in the past.
The group is expected to soon come out with a series of recommendations that can be implemented starting in the fall semester, said Leigh Appleby, a system spokesman.
Safety upgrades are also constantly being adjusted at private college campuses as well.
“Some of it is not public and a lot of it is public. We use a combination of training, infrastructure and technology to deny access to certain areas of campus,” said Gary MacNamara, former police chief of Fairfield and now director of security at Sacred Heart University.
The ever expanding campus is flush with radiocontrolled call boxes and an estimated 1000 cameras connected to a wall of monitors in the university’s yearold security headquarters.
At Sacred Heart, Emergency Preparedness Training extends down to student resident assistants. During orientation sessions, time is devoted to answering questions parents bring about safety procedures.
MacNamara said today’s college freshmen literally know the drill.
“They’ve not had a school year where active shooter and lockdown drills haven’t been around,” MacNamara said. “There is a sense of preparedness.”
At the same time, every time a new shooting occurs, there are course corrections.
“Our road map to keep people safe is always changing,” MacNamara said.
Tweaking the system
MacNamara was a police lieutenant in Fairfield in 2002. It was six months after 9/11. The Virginia Tech shooting, where 32 people would die, was still five years in the future.
A young man entered a religious studies class at Fairfield University’s Canisius Hall and said he had an explosive device strapped to his chest. He took 27 students and the professors hostage.
MacNamara was the department’s chief hostage negotiator.
“Over a period of eight hours we were able to negotiate the safe release of all 28 hostages and then the individual’s ultimate safe surrender,” said MacNamara, who credits good training and active partnerships with university, state and federal law enforcement agencies with resolving the situation.
The bomb turned out to be fake. But it taught MacNamara that no place is immune to terror.
“Every incident, you learn something,” said MacNamara. “You try to dissect what happens to learn and adjust accordingly.”
He said with the El Paso shooting, where the death toll stands at 22, it appears the shooter had made social media postings that could or should have been a red flag.