Webutuck BOE considers armed officer in light of Newtown

WEBUTUCK — Talks of adding a student resource officer (SRO) dominated the North East (Webutuck) Board of Education (BOE) special safety meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29.BOE President Bill McGhee opened the floor for general discussion on school safety.Superintendent James Gratto suggested allowing Michael Needham, safety consultant to the district from Needham Risk Management Resource Group, to speak on the current safety procedure within Webutuck (see story this page).After Needham’s review John Eboli, a parent from North East, raised general concerns.“I think we need to do more. I don’t mean this as an over-reaction. I’m an optimist and the reality is that nothing of this magnitude will ever happen here. But I think we should take steps, dig deep into our pockets and be more secure,” he said.Eboli urged everyone to put pressure on “the state level” to help with costs of added security.“Do you mean pushing them to fund the cost to put someone in the building?” asked McGhee, referring to an SRO.“Well, that’s a philosophical question. Do we want a resource officer? What’s enrollment here — 800 for the whole district? You could break the cost of an officer down by household and you’re not asking that much from each household a month,” Eboli said.Gratto interjected to help clarify costs.“I spoke with the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office earlier. A resource officer costs $63,000 a year. That includes benefits and everything. That’s their salary that we get billed from the county,” he said.Gratto also noted the option of having an armed guard at the school which would cost the district a current rate of $22 per hour. The guard would be a temporary position with different officers filling the position on a day-to-day basis, though the hours could amount to full-time.Needham noted that anyone armed on the premises has to be an officer with authority to make arrests. “There’s talk of having one quarter paid by the state, one quarter by the county, and one quarter by the local government [and one quarter by us], but that hasn’t passed yet. So right now we’re looking at the full cost,” McGhee said.Parent Robert Boyles Jr. asked about security for after-school programs.“What about during sports games? You have students coming in from other schools, strangers, and the whole building is open,” he said.Needham addressed a few options for added security.“There are some cheap options such as having all teachers lock their doors after 2:30 p.m. and having limited access to certain parts of the building. It’s widely known that the two holes in security at any school are early morning and after school,” he said.School board member Kristen Panzer asked Needham for specific threats during after-school hours.“Are there any specific trends or threats that are being seen after school?” she asked.Needham said there are no specific after-school trends as far as violence or threats go and added that there does still remain some structure during those hours.Eboli was still uneasy with the after-school protocol.“I think we should be proactive versus reactive. All bets are off after 2:30 p.m. There are transients from other districts in our schools,” he said.Panzer appreciated Eboli’s remarks.“I respect what you’re saying and appreciate it. I think we’re trying to identify what we’re protecting against. A badge system [for accessing the building] doesn’t protect against a Lanza,” she said, referring to the Newtown shooter Adam Lanza.Needham spoke up to the students’ level of responsibility.“The kids do a very good job, almost military when it comes to our lock down and drills. Things like you’re talking about are usually not a school problem, it’s a community problem that comes into the school. There’s shared responsibility there,” he said.Millerton resident and a parent of former Webutuck students, Al Barros, asked if any additional measures were needed.“Do we want a jail here? What has happened could happen anywhere. If they want to do it, they’ll do it. I came from a rough place. He obviously had mental problems. No one in their right mind is going to do something like this,” he said.As Eboli and Barros went back and forth over how much security was necessary, Amanda Forbes, a former teacher in the Newtown district, parent of two Webutuck students and Virginia Tech alumni, spoke.“I just want to say that I agree that schools are very safe. I know many who were affected in Newtown. No amount of practice can prepare for that situation,” she said.Forbes asked specific questions of Needham including what type of social workers are used after an incident occurs.“We use internal social workers first. Usually people who are familiar with the students and will go to external resources if needed,” he said.Forbes said she is currently a teaching assistant in Cornwall, Conn., where parent volunteers have been used to help with security.“They stand outside during admittance and dismissal with walkie-talkies that radio directly into the office. If anyone suspicious or unknown is on the grounds it’s reported. It’s several sets of eyes on the students during those vulnerable times. It’s something we’ve implemented that I thought I would share,” she said.Eboli challenged the board to reach out to other districts to see what creative measures are being implemented that might be practiced in Webutuck.Boyles redirected the conversation to the resource officer.“I think we should have an SRO. There’s no DARE [Drug Abuse Resistance Education] program now. If you put it to a vote the public is not going to vote it down,” he said, adding that an SRO can head up DARE while an armed guard cannot.Boyles said it was going to cost taxpayers no matter which option they chose.“It would be nice to have someone here who’s doing more for the kids and doing these programs and having them there for them to go to if they need,” he said.McGhee said the board will pursue the option of hiring a resource officer and further discuss measures to heighten after-school security.For more information and to view the District Safety Plan. go to www.webutuckschools.org.