One Year Later: Are Putnam County Schools Any Safer?

Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., schools officials across the county look to keeps school and students secure.

A year later and Thomas Manko can still clearly remember exactly where he was when he heard a gunman had stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct. killing 26 people, 20 of them young children.

Manko, Mahopac School District’s superintendent of schools, was at a Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendent meeting and was listening to state assemblymen and senators discuss school budgets. Manko got a text message from the office that told him about an incident in Newtown.

And from that moment everything changed for Mahopac, every other Putnam school system and countless districts across the country.

Last Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook, a school shooting that saw a gunman unleash a hail of bullets that turned a place of learning into a war zone. And from that day, Dec. 14, 2012, school districts have pushed to make each school safer with new initiatives and implementations.

“We all got a wake up call when that tragedy occurred,” Manko said.

On Dec. 14 a year ago, Manko locked down each school for a short time until it was deemed safe to go about business as usual. That following Sunday, Manko held a meeting with local government, law enforcement, and school officials to address security and then the next Monday the district held a meeting for concerned parents and community members to talk security. More than 200 residents attended that meeting

Changes at Mahopac were wide reaching and were either completely new ideas or ideas that got pushed through a lot swifter after Newtown.

A new program that Mahopac started was a Special Patrol Officer (SPO) program, which are retired law enforcement officials posted in the schools. Mahopac has four SPOs. Three are for each elementary school and another for the high school after hours.

Putnam County trains them and because they’re retired, they already receive health benefits from another employer, lessening the cost on the district.

District 6 Legislator Roger Gross was actively involved in putting the SPO program in place and has been pleased with the results. He said he would hope other districts eventually make the move to have an SPO in their district.

“I think that it would be a good addition in these strict budget times,” Gross said. “As it grows and as the program develops in Mahopac, which is going very well, I think you’ll see more interest in it.”

Those SPOs are in addition to Special Resource Officers (SRO) that are active county deputies and are posted at the middle school and high school during the school day for Mahopac and other districts.

The officers, either from the SPO or SRO program, are all armed and also have access to all security cameras. Over the summer, the district put in 200 additional cameras.

At the Brewster School District, Superintendent Dr. Jane Sandbank said each school has also undergone changes after Newtown. While she noted security was tight prior to last December, there are always ways to improve.

For one, the district decided to bring an officer into the elementary school, which previously didn’t have one. Each building also now has a double door buzz-in system. People that look to enter the building and aren’t a school official must present an identification card at the outside door into a camera before they are let in.

Sandbank said the district received a regular visit from homeland security and reported after an extensive study that Brewster was in good shape, “far ahead of other districts.” Teachers and other school workers have had to complete an active shooter-training course.

When asked if students are safer than a year ago, she responded “definitely.”

“We had quite a bit before Newtown,” Sandbank said. “But it’s an ongoing process.”

“We’ve just tightened up a lot, especially at the high school,” Sandbank said. “I think the community is quite aware.”

Putnam Valley School District interim superintendent Dr. Fran Wills said before she even arrived in the district this school year, the community had voted to expand funds for a project that would raise security at each school.

The premise of the security was to keep an unwanted intruder within a certain area of the school and limit their access. Also, automated locks for each classroom in case of an emergency. Right now, the project is in the bidding process.

“But we are moving along,” Wills said. “And this is something of a priority for the district.”

Wills noted many districts usually didn’t regard elementary schools as a target to intruders. When she was the superintendent at Briarcliff School District, Wills said the district was rare because elementary schools had similar security measures to the high school.

Before the shooting at Sandy Hook, she thought the Columbine massacre that took 13 lives was the worst she had seen. That changed a year ago.

“When you look at innocent children here, small children in a completely defenseless situation,” Wills said. “It raises a level of concern that never existed before.”