News

School security now No. 1 priority

By Bill Moss, Published: March 15, 2018

Before the Parkland High School shootings, classrooms in Henderson County were not locked. Now they are.

Before Parkland, which left 17 students and faculty members dead on Feb. 14, a report on school security may have seemed theoretical. Not now. Parents, teachers and administrators, and School Board members, listened intently to a report on school safety measures on school safety measures.

Before Parkland, public comment time at a county School Board meeting was mostly routine. Not anymore. A mother in tears told the School Board that her son is afraid to go to his high school, not just because of a horrific shooting in South Florida that made for wall-to-wall cable news coverage, but because his school was the target of a threat that resulted in the arrest of a 17-year-old.

Before Parkland, a request from the county school system for a huge increase in spending for a full-time law officer in every school and more psychologists to counsel troubled young people might have been politely received and quietly dismissed. Now the security investment looks like a near certainty.

Columbine. Sandy Hook. Parkland.

Datelines in the news. Familiar but not intimate.

But something felt different this time. In the past 10 days, we did not have to look south, to a spring break beach town, or north, to a snowy place, or west, to a Rocky Mountain state, to imagine children bleeding out on a classroom floor. We could imagine it right here. And in that same time period, the political stars aligned to form what looks like a consensus: School safety will drive education investment and law enforcement focus in the coming weeks and months. 

17-year-old threatens Rugby girls

On Sunday, March 4, sheriff’s deputies arrested 17-year-old Hunter Scott Aly and charged him with threatening to harm two girls at Rugby Middle School and telling them that he “would bring an AK-47 to their school on Monday, March 2” to commit “an act of mass violence,” according to an arrest warrant.

Aly threatened to kill a 13-year-old girl if she didn’t send him naked pictures of herself and threatened to rape her “if she was going to be difficult and not do what he was asking,” according to a sworn statement the girl’s mother made to a magistrate on March 4. He emailed or texted a 12-year-old girl, “I’m coming in and shooting you in the face,” the warrant said.

Aly had been charged in February 2017 with having a butterfly knife on school property; the charges were dismissed in July 2017 after he committed “no other offense,” according to District Court records.

‘Layers of security’

At the tail end of a Board of Commissioners meeting last week, Commissioner Bill Lapsley brought up school safety.

“I’ve had numerous citizens from the county stop and ask me what’s the county doing to address the issue,” he said. “Quite honestly, I say I don’t know. There’s no specific action this board has taken. I think the issue in my mind is one for the School Board and the sheriff to address and for this board to keep its eye on the ball.”

County Manager Steve Wyatt said he and Sheriff Charlie McDonald “had been in constant communication” from the time of the Parkland shooting. He had met with schools Superintendent Bo Caldwell and with School Board chair Amy Holt.

“Basically what we have done has been an assessment of the situation as we know it from our particular vantage point and what the role of county would be. The sheriff and obviously the School Board and school administration are the lead agencies,” Wyatt said.

Those meetings culminated in a meeting on March 2 with school administration staff Friday.

“The analogy that the sheriff used is that in the situation you use layers — layers or security in the form of physical barriers, protocol and security personnel and in between that there are lot of different options. The discussion I had with the school superintendent did focus on budget and priorities. School safety and school security will be priority items that will have to be addressed.”

Commissioners sounded like they were ready to invest heavily in security.

Charlie Messer said he favors a school resource officer in every school.

“That’s going to be No. 1 in my priority,” Messer said. “I hope that decision is made pretty quick because in my opinion any incident would be a tragedy. The way I look at it, something will happen sometime somehow.”

Mental health coverage is also in the mix.

“As much as we place emphasis on school nurses, maybe we should start looking at school psychologists and school psychiatrists,” said Chair Michael Edney.

‘Not a one-time expense’

At Monday night’s School Board meeting, Associate Superintendent John Bryant said in the past 30 days school administrators have assessed and reaffirmed current safety practices and met with SROs on ways to enhance security. In the next 30 days, administrators plan to identify safety improvements at all 23 schools, continue to conduct emergency response drills, develop training for faculty on mental health first aid, emergency procedures and “student in crisis” support strategies, form a school safety advisory committee and hold public forums on school safety at all four traditional high schools.

“That is not a one-time expense,” Caldwell said of new SROs and school counselors. “That is an expense that will go on for a long period of time. We’re also looking at the mental health aspect to provide our teachers with more help,” by hiring more psychologists and social workers.

‘Cultural change’

McDonald said he had been “pleased with the support we’ve had from the board and school administration.”

“When we’re talking about safety there are going to be a lot of things that require cultural change. I know about cultural change and it hurts,” he said. “I can’t keep schools safe by myself. Dr. Bryant and school administrators can’t keep our schools safe by themselves.” Change will happen “in a way that’s not fearful or scary but in a way that’s multi layers. It’s a whole new way of looking at things.”

The school system is already taking steps that cost nothing.

“The first layer, which is the internal classroom, and that’s why we made the culture change,” Caldwell said. “We’re locking all teachers’ doors. That’s not happened in Henderson County in a while. It’s happening now.”

Board member Rick Wood praised the work administrators have already done.

“There’s not any one answer to keep our kids safe and that is our first priority,” he said. “Mental health. I think we need to look at school psychologists. SROs in every school, which we don’t have now. More security cameras. I think it’s important that we do have a safety assessment as soon as we can to make sure we’re not missing something when we’re looking at safety concerns.”

Chair Amy Lynn Holt said she had “numerous pages of notes” from thoughts, conversations and study of school safety since the Parkland, Florida, shooting that killed 17 students and teachers.

“One huge thing is I appreciate is (Rep.) Chuck McGrady reaching out, saying that in Raleigh they want to help and get a handle on what we need for a budget point,” she said. She met with Sheriff McDonald for 2½ hours “and asked every question I could think to ask and I came away from that meeting that we need to communicate to the public” how emergency response works. She’s alarmed when parents tell her “they want to know as soon as something happens because they want to come and get their kids,” she said. “You don’t understand. You’re not coming to get your kids because that school is locked down and you can’t get to the campus.”

Jane Bilello, a Tea Party activist and substitute teacher in the county schools, urged the School Board to allow teachers to carry guns.

“When that armed shooter comes through the door while we are getting an A-plus on lockdown, what am I supposed to do? Throw a book at them? … All we’re asking is that you look at this in layers, and don’t leave out the confrontation part.”

Karen Beijer, whose son is a student at West, implored the School Board to move forcefully on security improvements.

“It’s difficult because it’s so many entrances to the school and it’s a money issue and I’m kind of tired of hearing that,” she said. “My son didn’t go to school last week because he was too scared. He just felt like he didn’t know enough to feel OK. I think that a lot of us probably feel this way and this is so not OK. There’s a fear now and no child can learn in that environment, nobody can. … But I don’t want more guns in schools. I want someone who has some training with a gun. What we can do is secure the building, make the kids feel safe in a building so they can actually learn.”

-30-