After Parkland, Schools Beef Up Security

During a recent lockdown drill, a classroom of New Haven students took the threat of an active shooter so seriously that they told the teacher to get out of the way and started barricading the door.

“The children are better prepared than we all are at this table,” Thaddeus Reddish, the school security director since 2016, told a panel of alders. ​“It’s a different generation. These children realize the reality of the world right now. and they take over, because their mindset is to survive.”

In City Hall’s aldermanic chambers on Tuesday night, Reddish and other school officials discussed the additional measures they’re putting in place to keep Elm City students safe from guns, at a joint meeting of the Education and Public Safety Committees, called at the request of Alders Richard Furlow and Jody Ortiz.

“It’s so sad we have to be here discussing this,” said Abby Roth, Ward 7’s alder, at a time when students around the country are being asked to wear clear backpacks to school and use textbooks to protect their vital organs.

In the wake of another deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., students in New Haven walked out of class and participated in nationwide protests for gun control, a task force of top security officials has been meeting weekly in New Haven.

Essentially, they’ve been trying to figure out how to make sure the schools stay locked all day, while still providing access to the first responders who might need to get inside in an emergency.

“We didn’t want a knee-jerk reaction, where we change everything we do, because we do good work. But we looked at some of the weaknesses that we can take care of, and a lot of it has to do with communication,” said Rick Fontana, the emergency operations director who chairs the school security task force. ​“It’s been a good collaboration, to bring everyone together, similar to what we do in the Emergency Operations Center.”

The review over the last month has been a joint effort. The teachers union asked employees to check their doors and windows. The city’s emergency operations hooked up all school camera to feed into their 911 system. And cops and firemen collected floor plans and walked through schools to plan out their response to an attack — a threat they now consider every time a fire alarm is pulled.

The school district’s latest measures, which Carol Birks has pushed since arriving as superintendent last month, add to defenses that New Haven has been putting up since 2012, after a gunman massacred 20 first-graders and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. New Haven was the first large district to complete a state-mandated security plan, which half the state’s other districts still haven’t done.

Tech, Cop Protocol Changes

After that shooting, the state offered grants for public and private schools to upgrade their security. Will Clark, the school system’s chief operating officer, had a comprehensive plan ready since 2010 and won close to $6 million in three rounds, which he used to put in security cameras and a keycard access system at most schools. (Upgrades are still being installed at the last 13 schools.)

Those two tech upgrades allow city employees to get instant access to the schools. Top officials — from the director of emergency operations to the 10 district commanders — can pull up real-time video footage from any building on their cell phones, while cops and firemen can swipe a badge to instantly unlock any door.

That could come in handy as the police department has changed its response protocol. Every time a fire alarm goes off, a police cruiser now immediately heads to the school to check on the situation.

In part, that’s because shooters have recently started setting off fire alarms that drive students out of locked classrooms into a chaotic exit from the building, where they can become easy targets like in Parkland. ​“Our schools have pretty good security and keep people out, so shooters have decided that they’re trying to get the kids out,” Police Chief Anthony Campbell said.

Within two minutes of getting a call from dispatch, police now meet a principal or security guard in front of the building once the alarm goes off. If they hear shots or screaming, they’ll call for backup and go in alone first.

Clark said that the district may review its evacuation protocol next school year, but students are currently instructed to leave the building when a fire alarm goes off, since there may be a gas leak or a blaze.

Except in the rare case that someone from the night shift is working overtime, most cops in the district will have already walked through the schools in their area. (Officers stay in the same location for a minimum of six months.) If not, security cameras can help guide them through the building to the shooter.

Next: Tourniquets? After-School Guards?

If another round of state funds becomes available, as expected, New Haven might ask for medical technology. Fire Chief John Alston proposed stocking the schools with tourniquets, to stop the bleeding in the event of mass injuries. ​“We train staff to go inside, hunker down and stop the bleeding,” he explained. He added that the tourniquets, which cost about $500 each, were ​“a lot cheaper than bullet-proof glass.”

Besides the new technology and procedures, alders asked if the district has enough staff. For two years, parents and students have complained about a shortage of security guards.

One alder said that’s particularly true at larger K‑8 schools like Fair Haven, where there’s only one guard for 900 students, more students than some high schools have. (Garth Harries, the former superintendent, heard that ask from Fair Haven parents back in 2016.)

Currently, there’s just enough security guards to cover every school, as long as no one’s sick or injured. The police department also provides an extra dozen school resource officers.

Clark said that there’s an open civil service list to hire more guards, but he needs the money to do it, at a time when the district is already making late-year cuts to close a $6.7 million deficit and preparing for a $5 million shortfall next year.

If Clark gets more employees, he could pilot a second shift to cover after-school programs and weekend events. Currently, those are watched by the chief and two supervisors.

Often, they have to call in other employees to check for break-ins on the weekends, racking up overtime and spreading the staff thin. Last year, one security guard clocked 1,437 hours of overtime, according to data provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. In part, that’s because the union contract, negotiated by the city, requires four hours of pay for each callback.

While most alarms are false, they’d rather pay for someone to check than ​“show up with no computers there,” Clark said.

The beefed-up response from police officers, who will be showing up for fire alarms, will help to cut back some of that overrun, and a second shift of evening guards next school year could also create savings, Clark added.

“But without new bodies, I can’t pull off the first shift,” he said. ​“We’re ready to go, depending on our budget and the priority of the superintendent.”

Avoiding ​“Prison Pipeline”

While New Haven is stepping up its security protocols, the district is also being careful not to create a prison-line environment, as some parents accused them of doing when they searched elementary students’ backpacks at Celentano Magnet School in May 2017.

It’s a tough balance that schools across Connecticut are trying to achieve, as shootings remain rare but physical confrontations, like fights and weapons at school, have ticked up, according to a report by the Connecticut Mirror’s Jacqueline Rabe Thomas.

Between 2009-10 and 2016 – 17, New Haven made the most abrupt shift in the state, from paying for security to treating mental healthy. Over those seven years, the district has added 39.8 employees to the 143.8‑person mental health staff, like psychologists, counselors and social workers, while cutting back 17 employees on the 68-person security staff. District officials have also emphasized restorative practices to settle disputes.

That’s especially important to the district’s black students, who still are far more likely to be kicked out of school than their peers. Last school year, according to state records, 1 in 9 black students received a suspension or expulsion on their record, compared to 1 in 22 Hispanics and 1 in 32 whites.