The Lakewood School District is implementing new and strict security measures in response to the tragic Newtown School massacre which left twenty six dead, School Board President Carl Fink tells TLS.
The new security measures were introduced today to the School Officials by Board Superintendent Ms. Laura Winters, and will include measures for all the Public School District – including High School, Middle School and Elementary Schools.
“As you all know, tragedies that occur, no matter how close to home they are, and that involve children, are incomprehensible,” Ms. Winters said.
Ms. Winters asked school officials to remind staff of the following:
“All outside doors MUST be locked at ALL times (even if classes are out at recess); Office staff MUST make sure that visitors go DIRECTLY to the Main Office; All visitors must sign-in at the office; When picking up a student from school, ID must be presented; No visitors may move throughout the building without an escort; ID Badges MUST be visible at all times; All employee parking decals MUST be visible at all times. School Security will be patrolling the school parking lots; All staff members must have keys to LOCK their classroom door in the event of an emergency; Metal detectors will continue to be utilized at both the MS and HS.”
Ms. Winters also asked that students be reminded of the following:
“LMS and LHS students must have their ID Badges visible at all times; Students may not wander the halls at any time without a pass.”
To assist children with dealing with the tragedy, an additional Guidance Counselor will be sent to each Elementary School to assist, Ms. Winters said, and letters will be distributed and sent home to all district families
Later this week, a meeting will be held to review all the district’s safety procedures.
Ms. Winters added, that a request will be made to the BOE to have Security Officers placed at ALL Elementary Schools, as has been done in the past. TLS.
does this include private schools?
I like the rules. You can never be to safe. If you are looking for security guards i am more then willing to work for the schools.
It wont help they had state of the art security with face recognition
Face recognition?? No they didn’t
I remember back in the day we had Mr Worthy in the front of Clifton Ave school and he escorted everyone to where they had to be maybe we need to also go back to that. This was back in 79 & 80s
there are close to 100 schools in Lakewood, no way to protect them all…….
While all of this sounds great if a deranged individual prepared to die shows up with an automatic rifle none of this will make a difference.
The guards in the schools are all packing weapons.
The BOE is responsible for the PUBLIC schools. The PRIVATE schools are responsible for themselves. Parents who choose an alternate education for their children must deal with that school. The BOE hired retired police officers for their security last year and was a good choice as these gentlemen have the training, experience, and willingness to deal with the everyday problems in Lakewood.
there are far more students in private schools in lakewood ,what are they doing as far as security? do not ALL students deserve the same protection ?
take guns away, lock the doors, etc = Timothy McVeigh didnt fire a single bullet, yet killed 168 and injured 680.
what we need is armed guards in our schools, malls, and other places people frequent. these property managements replaced high-speed security companies in the malls with total white-shirt wearing diffuses. housing property managements replaced armed patrols with camera’s = so what do you expect? ignore the bad, and the bad will come around anyway.
none of this would have helped in the newtown school as the guy shot his way into the school. Telling a guy with a loaded weapon that he first needs to check in at the office isn’t exactly going to help. The only thing that may have made a difference would have been having an armed security officer there who could have shot him right away (if he wasn’t shot first) and unfortunately that’s too expensive for all our schools to have.
I work at a lakewood public elementary school. Let me just say the same doors that are always unlocked and always open have been open today. There were definitely parents roaming the halls this morning.
So I take everything in this article witha grain of salt
First off I pray for the families in Newtown, Second it wasn’t the security in the school that was a problem. The man forced his way in on a side door, But i do agree schools need to tighten security up. All schools public and privet.
I don’t have kids in school yet but I have gone to some private schools to pick up my nieces or nephews-the secretaries and administrators never saw me yet they immediately released the child. We live in a crazy world today – I think that every school and community should take precautions no matter how insulated you may feel we are. Lock doors, do not release children w/o ID, make the parents send a signed note to the teacher stating who will pick up the child and then request ID when the person comes and make sure the names match up.
#10 – Lakewood Teacher-
Shame on you, you are just as responsible for the safety of students. It is EVERYONE’s responsibility to keep doors closed. Sometimes students leave the doors open, did you close it when you saw it open? Did you stop parents and tell them they need to go to the main office? Take responsibility, instead of waiting around for someelse to!