NORWICH – Norwich City School District is tightening up their school safety by making lunch time more secure at Perry Browne and Gibson schools, meaning parents and family members will no longer be able to join students during lunch.

Interim Superintendent Diana Bowers stated the new safety measure was needed for a number of reasons. She explained parents who come in for lunch often take pictures to capture the moment, and post those pictures to social media. Bowers said some students at the schools should not be photographed due to legal and safety concerns.

She said some of the prohibited student’s images were showing up in the background of other people photos being posted online, causing safety concerns.

After receiving a safety audit last fall, it was recommended the school limit access to the public during the school day.

“There was one long standing policy that we didn't want to change but we really felt it was necessary. So a letter went home explaining that unfortunately parents will no longer be able to come in and have lunch with their children in the cafeteria during the school day,” said Bowers.

“We thank the community for their willingness to understand that this is the best interest of our kids,” said Bowers.

Stanford Gibson Primary School Principle, Jennifer Oliver, ensures the public that there will still be plenty of opportunity for parents to visit their children in school.

“I think we've had a really positive response from the parents. That unstructured time is a time that we feel should be staff only. But we still want to have those open doors. We don't want it to be closed doors. We will still have structured time and events for parents to come in and enjoy our school community. Just not during unstructured time,” said Oliver.
Standford Gibson Primary School and Perry Browne Intermediate School serve close to 750 students in grades PreK-2 up to 5th grade. The cafeteria offers no-cost breakfast and lunch to every student on school days during the 2019-20 academic year.