Blumenthal Tours Manchester High, Views Security Upgrades

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal took a tour of Manchester High School on Tuesday, and said afterwards that he left the school impressed and inspired by a series of measures the school has taken recently to improve security as well as school climate. 

"The visit today really reinforced my idea that any programs to end violence, including gun violence, need to include school safety," said Blumenthal.

The Democratic senator arrived at the school around noon, and met with school and town officials – including Manchester High Principal Matthew Geary, Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel, and Mayor Leo V. Diana – as well as several students at the high school. 

School officials ran down steps that Manchester High has taken in the last several years to reduce violence, curb arrests, improve attendance and make the school's climate a more positive and nurturing environment. Among those programs and initiatives discussed, included the implementation of "swipe" technology at the start of the school year in late August of 2012.  The system  uses ID card that are required to be "swiped" at various locations throughout the school, including when students arrive in the morning, and at various places during the day such as at the school nurse's office, guidance, or the library. The system cost about $47,000 to install, and an additional $6,000 to maintain annually, but Geary noted that it has already improved the high school's attendance rate from 87 percent last school year to 93 percent this year. 

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Geary said that the system also has other "unindented benefits," such as allowing parents to sign up for emails or text messages that alert them when their children arrive at school or sign out to leave (or skip classes and don't show up at all). 

"You could go crazy spending all sorts of money to keep schools safe, but we've been able to implement some simple things," Geary said. 

Geary joked that parents and educators probably liked the system more than the students, but Rachel Brewer, a senior at the high school, credited it with improving the school environment this year and making the school day more orderly. 

"I really like the swipe, because there's no more kids walking around the hallways disturbing my classes," Brewer said. "Everyone is accounted for now." 

School officials also touted the success of the , which aims to keep children out of the justice system through a community-wide effort. Kisiel said that since the program went into implementation, arrests dropped at Manchester High from one school year to the next from more than 130 to about 30. 

"That's a very exciting number," Blumenthal said, adding that the counseling and mentoring programs offered through MAPS was a way of "trying to reach young people before they do something very bad." 

Kisiel said that, in the wake of the Newtown shootings, Manchester Public Schools were also in the process of distributing "emergency backpacks" to all classrooms throughout the district, which would include instructions for proper responses in the event of a number of potential emergencies, as well as rudimentary emergency supplies. Kisiel said the backpacks would cost the system about $10,000, and would be implemented irregardless of whatever decisions the school board makes on other potential security measures after the Newtown shootings. 

Blumenthal said that he wanted to make the emergency packs a federal requirement for all schools in the country. 

Blumenthal also noted that he was impressed by a series of programs and initiatives started at the high school recently that also focus on mental health, substance abuse, counseling and mentoring issues. 

"It has to be a comprehensive strategy, that's why I'm focused on school safety as a mental health issue," Blumenthal said. 

He even said that he might invite the Manchester High students who he met with Tuesday - Brewster and Senior Class President Sam Iacobellis - to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., when the Senate takes up debate on several bills intended to curb gun violence, which is expected in April.