Over the past decade, school safety has become an unprecedented nation-wide issue following numerous instances of shocking classmate and intruder-led attacks on students, teachers and administrators.
According to data provided by the National School Safety Center, there have been 410 deaths in America related to school violence since 1992, with 324 of them from shootings. School gunmen started to gain national infamy in the late 1990’s, beginning in 1997 with a calculated onslaught in Pearl, Miss., carried out by several disturbed teenagers who left two students and one of the killer’s mothers dead. The violence in Pearl was followed by a rash of other high profile school massacres, including shootings in West Paducah, Ky., Jonesboro, Ark., and the horrific attack in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 13 of their classmates and teachers, and then turned the guns on themselves.
“Kids have found more lethal ways to settle arguments,” said Dr. Ted Feinberg, an expert with the National Association of School Psychologists. “In years past they were maybe settled with a bloody nose or bloody elbow on the playground.” In a phone interview with The Evening Sun, Feinberg said bullying, alienation and a general feeling of disconnection to society has allowed some students to rationalize committing horrific acts of violence that were unthinkable before. “Certainly we know drug issues, parenting issues, a lack of education, and a lack of cohesive community relationships can be contributing factors,” he said.
Earlier this year, hostage situations perpetrated by middle-aged gunmen at Platt Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo., and an Amish School in Quarryville, Pa., which in separate incidents left several female students dead, have now brought school safety from outside forces into question.

The Experiment

On Monday morning of last week, in light of the recent violence, five Evening Sun reporters tested the outside and inside security at nine schools in seven local districts by attempting to enter the buildings through unlocked doors – and then finding out how long they could travel the halls without being recognized and stopped as strangers. Coincidentally, the tests occurred the day before a walk-through security assessment at Sherburne-Earlville High School was to be conducted, and on the same day as an incident at Norwich Middle School where a student reportedly intending to injure others with a knife was stopped and detained prior to causing any harm.
Dressed in casual to somewhat questionable clothing (see photos on Page 2), and searching out any open doors, reporters gained limited entry into Unadilla Valley Central School and Greene Central School before being questioned, and were stopped upon entry at Norwich Middle and High Schools, Oxford Elementary and High Schools and Gilbertsville-Mt. Upton High School. However, at Sherburne-Earlville Middle and High School, Otselic Valley Middle and High School, and Perry Browne Elementary School, reporters were able to gain access and walk freely throughout the building for between five and ten minutes before they were acknowledged by either a staff member or student.
“It’s not something I take lightly,” said Sherburne-Earlville School Superintendent Gayle Hellert, in response to the mock intrusion. “We talk about safety a lot. We talk about being vigilant and not getting complacent, and knowing that it can happen anywhere.”
Hellert and S-E High School Principal Keith Reed explained that the point of entry breached by the reporter is open as a handicapped accessible door, and has been a concern since it was created three years ago. They said plans are currently in place with a safety committee and an independent expert from BOCES to see how the door can be secured, yet still remain convenient for the disabled.
When asked if there was an explanation for several faculty members ignoring the reporter for roughly 10 minutes, the administrators said he may have been confused for a student based on his appearance, although they, and almost every other school official agreed: there are not any profiles that can help staff or students discern the intentions of a stranger or visitor.
Hellert and Reed added that the faculty have undergone training with the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department for handling emergency situations, and that lockdown drills, extensive evacuation plans and intruder response procedures have been focal points of the school’s on-going safety assessment.
“We are looking at a bigger plan to see where we are at,” said Reed. “There’s always things we can do better.”
“We have plans in place that we certainly hope work,” Hellert added.

Point of Entry

At Perry Browne intermediate school in Norwich, a reporter walked around the outside of the school, passing windows and testing doors, until she was able to enter the building using a secondary entrance. She was immediately met by several school employees, but was allowed to continue through the school for roughly five minutes before she was eventually stopped by Principal Michelle Donlon.
“Quite frankly,” Donlon said, “I’m glad to know that we have a (compromised) point of entry. You can’t fix what you don’t know about.”
Donlon explained the school regularly administers lock-down drills and safety audits, along with taking steps to reach out to parents and students to gather input. Donlon said that overall, she is still confident in the school’s security measures.
Most local administrators, with the exception of Sherburne-Earlville and Perry Browne, claim to only have one point of entry at their facilities, and futhermore, signing-in at the main office or with a desk attendant is required for all visitors at all schools. In some cases, visitors can only be let in by office staff. However, at Otselic Valley Middle and High School, a reporter was buzzed into the locked-down building, and once inside, was still able to walk the halls for several minutes before administrators caught up to him. The reporter was then escorted from the building.
“Anytime you have drills, you certainly will find holes,” said Otselic Valley’s Superintendent Lawrence Thomas in a subsequent phone interview. “Although it could have been done in more a positive way ... notifying the superintendent would have been better. Doing it this way – it may not help the students, staff or the community.”

Ongoing Measures

Like Sherburne-Earlville and Perry Browne, other area schools acknowledged undergoing perpetual safety assessments aside from the current safety plans they already have in place. In addition, the districts in Greene, Oxford, Unadilla Valley, and Sherburne-Earlville pointed out that surveillance cameras also monitor their facilities.
“I feel comfortable with the measures we have taken,” said Greene Superintendent Gary Smith. “The events happening in the beginning of the school year in parts of the country were a sobering wake up call for all of us.”
Gilbertsville-Mt. Upton Superintendent Doug Exley and Unadilla Valley Superintendent Rex Hurlburt separately voiced concerns over their school’s accessibility at night, during sporting and other events.
“We want to stay accessible to the community,” said Hurlburt. “We have as much a problem with security at night ... we are much more controlled when school is in session.”
The development of safety plans and codes of conduct in all school districts was mandated over the last several years by the New York State Education Department, but there are no uniform guidelines.
“There are certainly parameters that have to be met, that make sense to the district,” said NYSED spokesman Jonathan Burman. “We leave that up to people at the district level who have a better sense.”
June Arnette, the assistant director of the National School Safety Center in Westlake Village, Ca., agreed that school safety has to be established on a case-by-case basis.
“You can’t just do what your neighboring school system is doing. You have to assess what your risks are and what your assets are,” Arnette said in a phone interview with The Evening Sun. “There is no cookie-cutter way of doing that.”
According to Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES Superintendent Alan Pole, school safety covers such a wide gamut, that simply assessing physical security is not enough.
“School safety is pervasive,” Pole said. “It (safety) is how schools plan for kids, It’s how kids treat each other, it’s parent relationships, all of that goes into school safety.”
“I think sometimes too much time is spent finding out which side door is locked,” he said. “That’s not the essence of safety.”

Keeping In Touch

Oxford Superintendent Randall Squire said that keeping in touch with students is a priority in the district. “Kids bring in issues and are challenged even before they get on the bus in the morning,” said Squire. “We are aware of that and try to address that.”
Both Arnette and Dr. Ted Feinberg, an expert with the National Association of School Psychologists, say that safety plans need input from the community, and to some degree should rely on the citizens outside the school to help those plans be carried out, in and away from times of emergency.
“You have to take in others people’s input,” Arnette said. “We have to take a little bit more responsibility for ourselves and our issues. As adults we have to listen to our kids and our students.”
Arnette and Feinberg also agree that cameras, locked doors, and other aspects of security system measures should not be considered fail safes.
“To rely on equipment alone as a solution I think is foolishness,” Feinberg said.