Schools review security policies

Leaders take new look after slayings

Friday’s shooting of 20 first-graders and six adults inside a Connecticut elementary school prompted school officials in Northwest Arkansas to review security policies and procedures.

Police departments provided extra patrols early this week, particularly around elementary schools, school officials said.

“Things like the shooting in Connecticut just cause us to look at those with a little more attention,” Fort Smith School District spokesman Zena Featherston said.

In a letter sent to parents, Fort Smith Superintendent Benny Gooden wrote that individual campuses practice crisis responses, police are included and that the district has surveillance systems on its campuses.

“The tragic events occupy our thoughts and cause each of us to approach standing safety plans with renewed vigor,” he wrote.

He asked parents and community members to assist in securing campuses, reminding visitors to check in with school offices and contacting schools about any suspicious activity.

“Careful attention to safety is among the primary ways that we can continue to provide the highest quality programs of education for each of our students,” he said.

In Fort Smith, a district of 14,050 students, plans for responding to a crisis are reviewed monthly, Featherston said. A district crisis team will meet as scheduled today ahead of a school board study session in January to discuss the district’s plans for crisis response, she said.

“We try to keep all but the main entrance locked,” she said. “At an elementary that’s much easier to do than in high school situations. We do have to leave doors open for students to move from building to building” at the high schools.

Fayetteville schools, which serve 9,100 students, regularly practice lockdown and evacuation drills and the district evaluates thoseplans on an ongoing basis, spokesman Alan Wilbourn said. Children are instructed not to let anyone into the buildings, but instead to tell an adult.

The Rogers and Bentonville School Districts three years ago received a federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools grant that provided national consultants to assist in planning for emergencies, RogersSchool District spokesman Ashley Siwiec said.

In Rogers, with 14,450 students, the grant and consultants assisted the district in channeling all of its emergency plans and maps, including room numbers and locations of shut-off valves, in an online portal accessible to police and fire departments.

“It’s been heartbreaking to see what has happened in Connecticut. It has definitely made us review our plans,” Siwiec said. “We have very good plans in place.”

Entrances at newer elementary schools have the modern design routing visitors to offices first, but some of the district’s older campuses lack that feature, Siwiec said. The district’s business manager is studying options for those campuses, she said.

In Siloam Springs, district officials reminded staff members to keep classroom doors locked during class and to check that all exterior doors except the main entrances remain locked during the school day, said Jody Wiggins, programs coordinator for the district of 3,960 students.

When classroom doors are locked, people in hallways cannot enter them, but the doors are designed to open from the inside even when locked.

“We had a districtwide administrative meeting Monday morning to review each building’s crisis plan, specifically the part of the plan that each building already had in place for an ‘active shooter’ scenario,” Wiggins said. “Building administration then reviewed these plans with their staffs in teachers meetings on Monday afternoon.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/19/2012

Upcoming Events