Just five days after the shooting that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, local leaders, parents and other community members gathered at the Merrick Road Park Clubhouse to discuss school safety measures when pertaining to local schools.
Attendees of the meeting discussed possible measures that could be put into place to help protect children while they are educated in area schools.
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"I think all of the buildings are very vulnerable to these types of intrusions," Jennifer Schlesinger, who's in charge of the Merrick Road Improvement Committee, said. "There's thousands of different things that could go wrong in these buildings. We've got to do a better job in securing them."
As of now, people looking to enter the buildings must push a buzzer and identify themselves after entry, but several locals stressed that there should be a guard outside the door to check people's credentials. Some even suggested that these guards should be armed.
"He would have been shot before the shooter got to the children," Charise Baker said regarding the Newtown shooting. "Maybe two people would have died instead of 27."
Other suggestions proposed included increasing police presence at the schools, an enhanced photo identification system for visitors and even possibly training teachers to use stun guns in case of an emergency. Schlesinger suggested that a third party security company should go through each of the schools and evaluate where they are in terms of safety.
"We were in the superintendent's office for over an hour today discussing this," Gina Piskin, the president of the Merrick Board of Education said. "It's something we're taking very seriously. We're looking at all options."
What measures do you think should be taken to increase school safety? Tell us in the comments section below.
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