Security, Safety Paramount On School, College Campuses

OSWEGO – Recently, the news has been saturated with reports of threats of violence, lockdowns and, in some places, active shooters.

“A lot of things have been happening over the last few weeks; there’s been much discussion about safety and security,” Oswego School Superintendent Dr. Dean Goewey said at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting.

He attended a safety summit last Thursday at Onondaga Central School, which was actually planned before the tragic events in Florida, he pointed out.

“We spent the day listening to a great presenter about safety and security of students in schools. Many of the things we currently have put in place in our district were talked about and there were some very good suggestions for other things that we’re going to try to incorporate into our district,” he said.

The district is looking to purchase a system that will scan a visitor’s driver’s license and create an identification. At the same time it is creating the identification sticker, it does a quick background check on that individual.

“That’s one example of the next steps that we’re taking for safety and security. The next one is moving to a lockdown system at the new Education Center (in Leighton Elementary School). We created a door system at the end of the corridor to create some level of safety for Leighton Elementary School,” the superintendent explained. “The next step is to create a buzzer system and a camera at the door to the Education Center that would be operated by the clerical staff inside the Superintendent’s Office.”

These are improvements that the district had initiated before the Florida event, the superintendent pointed out.

Recently, they hosted an administrative council, attended by representatives of the fire and police departments.

“We had a really great couple of hours with school administrators and directors and others about school safety and security,” Dr. Goewey said.

He praised the collaborative effort that took place between Oswego Police department, Oswego Fire Department and school personnel.

Similar work is being done on the state level, he said, citing the collaboration county sheriffs, the New York State Police and others.

“We’re bringing all these people together to have conversations about school safety and security,” he said.

The district has received State Ed approval on the small capital improvement at Oswego High School.

“That’s the capital project that will turn the current main office into the hub of our district technology infrastructure and staff and also will create a new single point of entry for the high school that will funnel visitors directly into the new main office, which will be in the classroom adjacent to the theater,” Dr. Goewey said. “So we will have all seven schools with single points of entry and secure entrances that funnel directly into the main offices.”

“Very shortly, we will go out to bid on the work. We fully expect to get the work done on the renovations at the high school this summer; have technology moved into its space in August and we will open school with a single point of entry at Oswego High School. That lobby will have a completely new look in the fall,” he added.

Student Walkouts

“We don’t have a specific plan yet (regarding potential student walkouts). There has been a lot of talk about it among superintendents. In the meantime, we have made a contingency plan. It’s similar to what some other districts across the state are doing,” the superintendent said.

Some districts are doing organized walkouts for 17 minutes just outside their buildings and they’re doing activities – sign a banner in support of Florida, maybe filling out cards.

“For Oswego High School students, it might be a walkout to the theater to listen to some speakers; just to have a conversation about student feelings on school safety and security,” Dr. Goewey explained.

An OHS student has reached out to the superintendent about two national walkouts that are planned – one on the anniversary of the Columbine anniversary and the other in April. The student asked to have a conversation with the superintendent.

“I responded to that student and asked to set up a meeting,” Dr. Goewey said Tuesday night. “I haven’t heard back yet.”

There will be a plan in place for all nine districts that will be similar.

“There is a very fine balance between giving our students a voice and giving them an opportunity to advocate for school safety and security … but balancing that with the fact that public schools in New York State are not political,” the superintendent said.

The district has policies around school safety and security and students walking out of schools, he added.

“We can’t pick and choose as a district what initiatives we want to go soft on a policy on. So we have to find a sweet spot between our policies and giving our articulate high students a voice, an opportunity to gather safely,” he said. “We share their (students’) concerns. We’re going to come up with a solution that might involve musicians, it might involve guidance counselors … a variety of things. The message is we share their concerns and we’re going to come up with a solution that’s positive.”

Cayuga Community College Is Prepared

“Cayuga Community College has a comprehensive, all-hazard emergency plan in place to respond to potential threats on our Auburn or Fulton campuses. We’re constantly reviewing and updating that plan,” Cayuga Community College President Brian Durant told Oswego County Today.

They have multiple means of generating emergency communications to students, staff and faculty whether they are on or off campus.

“We also regularly update students and staff on procedures for a response to an active shooter situation. We hold several trainings each semester for the campus community on how to respond to a potential threat on campus, and our Behavioral Intervention Team works to develop preventive strategies whenever issues are brought to their attention,” Durant said. “In addition to that comprehensive strategy, veteran law enforcement officers are stationed at both campuses.”

SUNY Oswego Is Prepared

SUNY Oswego has a plan in place, as does each state-operated SUNY campus.

They must have an “All-Hazards” Emergency Response Plan that outlines how the campus intends to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from emergencies that occur on campus or affect the campus.

Emergencies may range from chemical spills, fires and bomb threats, to explosions, natural disasters, civil disturbances such as riots or labor unrest, active shooter and other major crime incidents, cyber attacks and pandemics – to name a few.

“The SUNY Oswego Emergency Response Plan is a procedural document, which incorporates the Incident Command System for organizing, coordinating and directing available resources toward the control of an emergency,” Wayne Westervelt, chief communication officer at
SUNY Oswego, said.

The plan includes a chain of command establishing the authority and responsibility of various individuals, so that emergencies may be dealt with immediately in a logical and coherent manner.

“The intention of the Emergency Response Plan is not to establish policy, but to create a framework that will allow an immediate response to an emergency,” Westervelt told Oswego County Today.

SUNY Oswego holds the safety and security of its students, faculty, staff, and visitors as its number one priority, he added.

“Our plan is designed to outline roles, responsibilities and procedures to be followed by the units and personnel of SUNY Oswego in case of emergencies on campus,” he said.

Fulton Reacts to Potential Threat

Recently, Fulton City School District was alerted of a potential threat after students reported seeing empty shell cases in a classmate’s backpack.

Superintendent of Schools Brian Pulvino published a notice on the district’s Facebook page after sending the same notice to parents of students either through phone or email.

The statement informed readers that on Tuesday (March 6) three students at G. Ray Bodley High School approached administration after seeing what they believed to be “empty shell cases” in a student’s backpack.

Immediately, the student in question and the backpack were secured and the presence of empty shell cases was confirmed, the statement read.

The school resource officer and the Fulton Police Department worked together with school administration to identify that there was no subsequent threat to the safety of students and staff.

Though the district does not release specific information regarding safety plans and protocol in the event of a threat, Pulvino told Oswego County Today that appropriate drills are being held districtwide as required and district officials and staff remain constantly aware.

Proud of the students for bringing their concern to administration, the same can be done community wide to ensure school safety, he said, encouraging every member of the community to report any concerns for the district to approach with proper attention.

“Every bit of information we get, we take seriously,” he said. “School safety is more than just in school. I’ve gotten calls about students waiting for the bus in the road during the winter and worked promptly to rectify the situation and ensure student safety. When needed, we work closely with our law enforcement and respond quickly. If there’s any concern, we encourage anyone to let us know.”

Communicating concerns is a crucial element to school safety, he said. Referencing the Parkland tragedy, he said, “Could it have been prevented? No one knows, but there seemed to be a lot of people who knew of concerns.”

For this reason, he and district officials stay alert and are constantly looking to improve their response to threat.

“Even though it worked, we’re always looking at how to do it better. It’s never an issue where you can stop monitoring how to be most efficient,” he said.

With an emphasis on communication, the district also looks at ways to improve parent notification. Following Tuesday’s incident, parents were notified using different approaches including an email system or a text link and also by updating information on the district website.

Pulvino advises all parents of students in the district to ensure they have the most recent contact information on file with their child’s school to be certain they receive important information and notifications of accurate content.

Pulvino added that the district is looking into the security systems throughout the district to ensure they are working efficiently and will be conducting assessments in the near future to track every detail of school safety, right down to the productivity of the walkie-talkies staff uses to communicate in an immediate fashion.

(Mikayla Kemp contributed information for this report)

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