Improved Safety Measures Proposed for Schools

School safety and security was forefront on the minds of the parents and staff who attended "Cocoa and Conversation with the Superintendent" at the East Hanover Township Board of Education building Wednesday.

Dr. Joseph Ricca, superintendent of the East Hanover Township School District, said the school shooting at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn. in December prompted a discussion of how to improve safety in nearly every school district.

"Throughout the course of history there have been certain things that have shaken us and made us think, 'How safe are our schools?' December 14, I think, was one of those times," Ricca said.

He detailed some of the security measures the school district has engaged in, including a soft target hardening evaluation through the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, which the district participated in in 2010.

Ricca also said after Newtown, "we immediately started to look at our own plans for just about any scenario you can think of," and noted the district already makes an effort to drill more than the state requires.

Parents who attended the meeting, however, noticed some faults in the school's security which they felt ought to be fixed. One woman said the last time she went to her child's school, one of the children who recognized her let her in. Another parent said when she approached the school one day, a parent she didn't know held the door open for her.

Behaviors like these are against school security policies, but because of the neighborly attitude in East Hanover, staff and students have been lax in the past.

"When something like this (school shootings) happens, it's usually someone familiar with the school," Ricca conceded. "For us, it's a cultural shift. There was a time we didn't even lock our doors at home."

Councilman Michael Martorelli asked about "Seek Shelter" alarms and ways of communicating with students who are on the playgrounds or otherwise out of hearing of the PA system.

"A shooter comes into the school, the first thing he does is pull the fire alarm. Everybody runs out," he said. Some schools have "Seek Shelter" alarms, he said, which drown out the fire alarm and warn students and faculty to find a safe place to hide. Another parent asked if the district planned to install bulletproof glass on all the windows and doors.

Ricca said he has looked into the cost of all these and other options, but has not made any decision. He did say, though, that he believed bulletproof glass was unnecessary.

All the doors already have a magnet strip so teachers can lock them from the inside by removing the strip.

Mostly, parents said, faculty and students should be more cautious about admitting parents and students into the schools, even when they are known.