As much of the nation continues to wrestle with various ways to safeguard school children—considering options from armed teachers to armed guards— the issue of school safety is back in the spotlight in Queens this week as members of the community responded to a story in last week’s Forum.
The story uncovered potential safety risks at MS 146 in Howard Beach where the school’s main doors were ordered reopened by the City’s Department of Education (DoE), after the principal locked them in response to the Sandy Hook shootings.
A sign posted on the school’s front door by MS 146’s Principal James McKeon stated that the doors were to remain unlocked to allow first responders access to the school. The sign also noted that school safety agents were not required to get up and answer doors due to a provision in their union contracts.
In addition, Forum publisher Pat Adams documented, during an unannounced visit to the school, un-monitored corridors adjacent to the unlocked doors which could pose significant security risks.
The heightened security concerns prompted one New York City Councilman to announce Wednesday that he is in the process of drafting legislation that will mandate locking all entry doors at New York City Public Schools.
Councilman Eric Ulrich is in the process of drafting legislation to order the locking of school doors, but Ulrich’s plan does not stop there. He says the need for broad, sweeping changes in school security are needed and they are needed now. “The legislative process can be time consuming, ” Ulrich explained. “What we need to do immediately is lock the doors of the schools, because that is the first line of defense against those seeking to harm children and anyone else in the building.” Another flaw in the DoE’s safety plan he points out is that they treat schools as though they were designed in cookie-cutter fashion. “Every school is different,” he said, “and the physical layouts of the buildings are mandatory considerations in devising effective safety plans.”
Also needing to be addressed is the fact that union regulations which do not provide for safety agents to open locked doors must be reviewed.
The Forum has also learned that what was characterized as an official “Open Door Policy” by the DOE is, in fact, not a rule at all— at least according to Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg.
“We have always ‘recommended’ that the front door remain open so that first responders can enter when and if there are emergencies and parents can enter the school when they want to talk to teachers and staff,” Feinberg, said in an e-mail response to the newspaper.
She added that “School safety does cover the front desk and implement visitor control procedures.”
Dmytro Fedkowskyj, Queens’ representative for the citywide Panel for Educational Policy, is another critic of the DoE’s open door recommendation.
“Since it doesn’t appear that this matter is governed by any policy or chancellors regulation, and that school principals are responsible for the security and safety of their school community, I see no reason why front doors can’t be locked if the principal and school community so choose them to be,” Fedkowskyj said, in a statement.
The subject was further discussed at a Community Education Council (CEC) 27 meeting in Howard Beach on Monday night, where parents and school administrators again discussed safety at MS 146 as well as at other schools across the city.
Parents and members of MS 146’s PTA asked about a variety of possible safety measures from the installation of surveillance cameras and panic buttons to moving the school safety agent’s desk down to the first floor and closer to the main doors.
Currently, the security desk at the school is two flights up from the front doors.
McKeon, who took responsibility for initially keeping the school’s front doors locked, said he was aware he would get “backlash” from DoE officials once they learned the doors at the school were locked. He also admitted that the school was “vulnerable” due its physical layout.
“If I have to move my desk, down into the vestibule area near the main doors, I will do that,” said McKeon, to a round of strong applause.
He added that some simple solutions, such as a camera system and a buzzer to alert safety agents to visitors, would also make the school safer. However, McKeon also pointed out that the DOE deploys cameras and surveillance systems based upon the perceived security needs of a given school.
“Unfortunately, we’re rated a lower priority for cameras, meaning we’re far down the list because we’re ranked as a safer school,” McKeon said after the meeting.
PTA members also expressed their concerns and suggested that The Forum article may have drawn attention to the vulnerability of their school. Colleagues at nearby schools however held different opinions.
Parent Coordinator Nina DeBlasio at nearby MS 207, told The Forum that while it’s quite understandable that there may be those types of concerns, her school would welcome coverage that would bring attention to growing security concerns at every school.
Chancellor Dennis Walcott visited MS 207 after the school faced Sandy devastation, now parents want him back at Queens schools to address safety issues in light of Sandy Hook school slayings.
In fact De Blasio says that at a recent welcome back meeting at 207, following a Sandy damage related closure, one of the parents top concerns was school safety and the consensus that the doors be locked was at the top of their priority list.
Echoing the sentiment that PTA’s need to band together to affect immediate change was Scholar’s Academy PTA co-President Donna Folias. “We are all in the same boat,” said Folias, “and in order to bring about the immediate change we need to keep our kids safe, we have to bring this issue to the forefront and demand what we need to protect every school in this city.”
Other measures under consideration to improve school safety situations are the DoE’s plans regarding closed-circuit cameras. Since 2010 they’ve focused on expanded deployment of digital video surveillance and ID-card access control.
Feinberg said that as of November 15, 2012, surveillance systems have been installed in 445 buildings.
By Alan Krawitz & Patricia Adams
