Mar 2, 2018 5 min read

CARMICHAELS – About 60 parents, teachers and community members attended a school safety open house at Carmichaels Area School District Wednesday evening, and the parents had one overriding concern: How are you going to keep my children safe when they come to school?

Speakers made clear they cannot guarantee children’s safety with 100 percent certainty. While that might not sound like a comforting notion, one by one, administrators and law enforcement officials outlined the precautions in place and what parents can do to help.

“It is a potential here, and we cannot ensure your children’s safety all the time,” said Cumberland Township police Chief James Vogel. “All we can do is the best we can.”

Superintendent John Menhart opened the talk by detailing an earlier incident that prompted Wednesday’s event. Misleading and factually incorrect information spread early last week after administrators notified parents Monday morning of an alleged threat that was investigated twice – once by the school district and then again by police – and deemed not to be credible.

Menhart told parents students overhead a conversation in the cafeteria Feb. 16.

“That story came from a girl sharing a dream,” he added.

After that incident, Menhart said school board President Thomas Ricco suggested opening the lines of communication between the community and administration.

School police officer Craig Miller, former Cumberland Township police chief, said when he still served with the township he helped to retool the schools’ emergency response to an active-shooter situation. All teachers and staff have since received ALICE training. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate, and aims to teach civilians how to respond to an active-shooter incident.

The district has recently completed a risk assessment with state police, and Miller said he will share those findings at an upcoming school board meeting when he receives them. In addition, the school has added more mental health and medical professionals, is looking at vendors for visitor management systems and established a safety team that meets monthly to discuss issues. New cameras have been installed throughout the buildings that Miller said he can access with his smartphone.

The school’s ALICE training will be completed March 8, when the concept is introduced to students. Miller said they will be teaching students to evacuate whenever possible. Four rally points have been set up, and the senior center in Carmichaels has been established as a place for children to be reunited with parents, if necessary in an evacuation.

Menhart thanked local officials for attending the event, including state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson. Menhart wondered during the talk why students practiced fire drills monthly but were not required to rehearse active-shooter responses.

“I’m going to check on what Mr. Menhart said,” Snyder said after the talk. “They are mandated to do a fire drill once a month. Now, I just spoke to one of the administrators, and they are not sure if that is state or federal, so I’m going to find that out. But they’re not mandated to do the training for an active shooter. I’m really going to take a look at that and see if we can change that. I think they should. I think every school district should be doing what Carmichaels is doing here, and I know others in our county are doing the ALICE training.”

She added the event was great for the community and the district answered a lot of her questions.

“It’s unfortunate that this is the world we live in, and it is a shame that our kids have to be trained in something like this. However, the more prepared you are for something, the less likely a tragedy will occur,” Snyder said.

Ron Gallagher, middle school principal, showed parents a new application being rolled out in the district to communicate with staff during a crisis situation. Crisis Go is an alert system, and also features a student portal where middle and high schoolers can report bullying, weapons, threats of suicide or drugs and alcohol.

But not every parent’s fears were put to rest. Several had questions after the presentation, such as whether metal detectors would be installed, if the dress code would be altered and how often students would practice the active-shooter drills.

Menhart said specifically during the talk he does not believe teachers should be armed. Lance Neely, who has one child in the district and a 4-year-old entering school soon, does not agree.

He and his wife, Rebecca, came prepared with questions for administrators and said their fears were somewhat eased after hearing from the district. Rebecca said she wants to see more changes and was happy to hear the camera system for the school’s front door has since been made more secure. She is still concerned about the prevalence of bullying in the school and wants to see more preventative measures.

Lance said hosting the night was the right thing to do, and he was glad the school realized community members had concerns. He wants to see a defense mechanism of some sort, whether it be arming teachers or another option, because assailants pick vulnerable targets.

“I would like to tuck my children in every night knowing that I fought hard for making sure that I did everything in my power to make sure they are safe,” Lance said.

Even after the talk, Menhart wants parents to understand safety is an ongoing process and he tries to be as transparent as possible. While safety is paramount, he wants the school to remain a school, not a prison.

“We got some good questions, and I would be disappointed if we hadn’t. That’s why we’re here. We had some concerns, and I hope those people left here with some answers. Honestly, they asked some questions that make us question ourselves. Maybe there are things we need to do a little better,” Menhart said.