School Officials Meet with Police to Review School Security
- Tuesday, 18 December 2012 11:02
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 December 2012 11:34
- Published: Tuesday, 18 December 2012 11:02
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Scarsdale Police met with Scarsdale School District administrators on Monday 12-17 to review school safety plans and protocols, including lockdown and lockout procedures. According to Lt. Thomas Altizio, police will step up their efforts to monitor the Scarsdale Schools, saying, "The Scarsdale Police Department will continue periodic patrols of all school grounds to enhance law enforcement visibility and presence and police officers will continue the random walk-through visitation programs established in certain schools."
School Superintendent McGill also emailed district parents and said that safety protocols would be reviewed and that doors to the elementary schools would be locked when they should be. Visitors will only be admitted after they have been identified on a camera.
Other security measures are in place:
- The High School had already scheduled a "lockdown drill for the spring, as well as a related rapid response drill involving a police tactical force.... lockdowns involve students and teachers; rapid response drills take place after school and involve police and sometimes teachers.... a series of transportation/evacuation drills had already been scheduled for the spring."
- Randomly scheduled police visits are already made to the Middle and High Schools. In January, police will extend these "meet and greets" to the elementary schools.
- The District Safety Team will meet after the New Year to consider existing practices and ways they might reasonably strengthen them. They "will involve the police and parent leadership in this process.... and use the services of a security consulting firm."
However, McGill cautions that, "Schools across the country can lock their doors and put guards in the halls, but until this nation takes gun control seriously and until we address the scourge of mental illness a lot more effectively than we do today, more tragedies will occur. " He encourages parents to do what they can to advocate for gun control legislation.
