Attleboro Schools Not Secure, Parent Says
The school district is reviewing its security in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.
Security must be improved at Attleboro's public schools regardless of the cost, a Hill-Roberts Elementary parent said at the Monday school committee meeting.
Sam Ambewadikar said he was sharing the opinions of several parents in his neighborhood when he spoke during the public forum portion of the meeting.
"Intercoms and locked doors and having an occasional police presence at school admission and discharge are insufficient for any of the schools," he said. "There needs to be a police presence at every one of our schools … and if that costs money, then that's worth spending money for."
School district Superintendent Pia Durkin said she has had several administrative meetings about school safety since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Two meetings have taken place with Police Chief Kyle Heagney, including one attended by Mayor Kevin Dumas.
Building safety plans are "continually looked at and reviewed by the police department" and have been given a "far more critical eye" since the Sandy Hook tragedy, Durkin said. Heagney and Dumas are expected to attend the next school committee meeting on Jan. 28 to make a presentation on safety.
Durkin said a review of school monitors and security systems was recently done. She has some ideas for upgrades that she will discuss with the school committee during an executive session. Also, she wants the schools to have more lockdown drills "so they become as second-nature as fire drills are." There will be a police presence at the schools during these drills.
paul
8:35 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Students should also have air raid drills and every child should have a gas mask in their backpack. Forget the police, the National Guard should be deployed to every school in America, this is war people!
Geoff McGehee
8:49 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Not just the National Guard - arm every student with an AK47. That way everyone is equally safe!!!
Steve Hopkins
11:53 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
That's really off the wall !! Waaayyy off!
Geoff McGehee
12:32 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
<sarcasm>
Reason
9:44 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Also barbed wire, electric fence and full body scanners. Honestly though turning schools into prisons is not correct direction. These are solutions that are waiting for the next problem to occur and do nothing to prevent them from occurring. An armed officer on duty at Columbine didn't help. In most shooting incidents someone knew something was up in advance. Educate teachers, administrators and other students to recognize the signs of problem and report them.
Steve Hopkins
12:01 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Putting a single cop in a school probably won't help prevent someone w/auto weapons from getting in and one more cop will be dead. Parents - in addition to 'Mr. Reason's list - should smarten up too. That kid's mother in CT actually contributed to the problem! Dr's need to report these potential killers to a national data base. (no patient confidentiality with respect to ability to purchase weapons by those with mental health issues. The data base has to accessible to all police agencies throughout the country. Ban auto and warfare type weapons. No sale/purchase of anytype of gun with out a background check. ammunition purchases need to be tallied and tracked. this includes what goes on at gun shows!
Emcee of Seekonk
12:37 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Steve, an lot of what you say is all ready in place. Background checks are being made, people known to be mentally unstable cannot buy or register guns, there is a ban on assault weapons like machine guns or warfare type.
Ammunition purchases could be tracked easily enough with today's technology, and I agree with you that they should be. I'll add to your list that weapons and ammo shouldn't be sold over the internet. Not sure how that could be controlled. But, I supposed weapons and ammo could be the new pornography.
I don't think society can control all eventualities because most often the shooters use stolen guns, often they are underaged people or young people who have no histories. This is, essentially, their first and last offense.
Steve Hopkins
1:35 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Emcee - 'In place' but not effective. Auto gun ban ended , I think in 2007, and not renewed by jerks in Congress. too many loopholes. some police depts & others use a local database, not even a county, state or federal database to do the checks. This should be mandated by anyone doing backgrounds checks to access a fed database, and that this is is continually kept updated.
Emcee of Seekonk
2:05 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
"'In place' but not effective"
My point, exactly. They can pass stricter laws, create more databases, but the guy who intends to steal someone else's weapons to create carnage does not care how many laws are passed of databases created. Generally, he himself is suicidal.
But, I agree that we should try something, if only to make people feel better.
Steve Hopkins
1:40 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
mental health physicians need to be required to report , add to database, anyone they deem shold not own or have access to guns. Recent massacres have been comitted by people with mental health issues. anyone found to aid in supplying weapons to them should also be held liable.
Your facts & info is a bit weak!