Millbrook school deals with knives on campus

MILLBROOK — Millbrook Middle School parents received a letter from Principal Phyllis Amori on Monday, Feb. 25, following an assembly Amori had with students regarding several issues — some serious. The letter covered academics, asking parents to encourage their children to utilize their study time more effectively as teachers were noticing assignments being completed with little effort by students. Amori reminded students and parents about dismissal procedures, making sure children don’t leave the school grounds without adult supervision.But amid all of the reminders there stood out one sensitive and important issue on school safety. Amori informed the student body in person, and the parents through the letter, of three instances of students bringing knives onto school grounds. The principal said that the situations could have been avoided if the items had “been removed from the backpacks after activities such as Boy Scouts or farm work.“My intent with parents is to go over this with their kids to remind them to get their stuff out and not take things they are using in perfectly appropriate ways to school, because I am obligated to suspend them. That’s the law,” she said in an interview with The Millerton News.Amori said the circumstances surrounding the three incidents are confidential, but that she wanted to be as transparent as possible with parents so they can inform their children of the seriousness of bringing weapons to school, to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Amori said that she understands her student body is young and it’s typical of middle school children to be forgetful and sometimes careless. She said that when the situation happened more than once she felt the need to remind the school community of its policies, and to make sure children are extra careful about the items they bring to school.Possession of any weapon on school grounds results in an automatic suspension for five days. Amori said the school must follow safety procedures exactly, no matter how hard suspending a student from school can be, especially if she believes the student inadvertently brought something in a backpack that was used it in a nonviolent situation and had simply been forgetful about removing it.Millbrook Middle School parent Jeff Senchack said that under no circumstances does he think a weapon of any kind should be brought to school and felt the district handled it properly. However, he said he would like more information regarding what exactly was brought to school.Another Millbrook Middle School parent, Alec Pandaleon, urged parents to read the school handbook distributed by each school to parents at the beginning of the year, so they know the expectations of the district involving student conduct, and can teach their children accordingly.“It’s incumbent upon parents to sit down with their kids and let them know what the rules and expectations are of the school in order to create a safe environment,” said Pandaleon. “I applaud the school whenever they take action such as suspension to communicate the seriousness of the offense, to not only the student, but their family. I think it’s important that the school let the parents at large know they take this issue and other issues of student safety seriously, and that they see it as the most important issue to create a safe environment for learning. [I believe] that students will respect the school administration when they act with a firm and disciplined approach.”