Seymour town officials assured parents Wednesday that local school security measures were in very good shape.
At a public forum held at Seymour Middle School to hear comments and questions from town residents, First Selectman Kurt Miller said after hearing about the tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14, school officials and police immediately touched base and tightened security.
Miller and other officials were deliberately vague about some of the security measures that were in place.
“We don’t want potential intruders to know how we respond to emergencies,” he said.
But Miller and a panel of officials including School Superintendent Christine Syriac, Police Chief Michael Metzler and school district Security Director Rich Kearns, described how the schools had prepared for potential problems and indicated some security issues were still under review.
Several parents mentioned complaints about new procedures for picking up students that were put in place since the Newtown shooting.
As Brooke Anderson, a Bungay School parent, described it, parents must wait in line outside the school in the cold, have their IDs checked twice, and then wait again in the cafeteria.
Syriac said the new procedure was put in place hurriedly in the days following the Newtown shooting to make sure children were safe at school. She added that school officials do not want to alienate parents or discourage parental involvement.
Changes in the procedure were being reviewed.
Another parent asked how teachers were prepared to identify troubled students who might commit a violent act.
“We are always looking out for what’s in the best interest of our students,” Syriac said.
The superintendent said teachers were trained to look for students and school staff members with troubles and that a variety of professionals inside and outside the school district were available to offer help.
Kearns said he accompanied police and school officials recently to a symposium on school security held by the state Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security in Southington.
He said officials there were surprised at how well Seymour was prepared.
Kearns, a former police officer, said when he started as security director several years ago there were few security measures in place. Visitors could walk into most schools unannounced, he said.
Now, visitors are screened before entry and sections of the driveways in front of the school buildings have been designated as no parking zones to reserve them for emergency vehicles, he said.
Kearns said Seymour police have practiced security drills at all the town school buildings, sometimes holding joint drills with officers from other departments, although never while students are present.
Metzler said the police department was consulting with Miller’s office and the Board of Finance about the possibility of stationing police officers at each of the town schools, although no decision had yet been made.
Metzler said President Barack Obama has mentioned the possibility that the federal government might pay for police officers in schools. Town officials were waiting to see what Congress decides, Metzler said.
The police chief rejected a suggestion to train teachers or other school staff to carry firearms in the schools, a suggestion made last month by Second Amendment advocates including National Rifle Association CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
Metzler said during an emergency, police officers might shoot an armed school staff member by mistake, and he would not want that to happen.
Miller ended the forum by stating that other town buildings, including the Public Library and Town Hall, might also get security upgrades once the school security matters are settled.
“Our kids are in very good hands,” Miller said.