In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, Merrick School officials have received a lot of calls regarding safety concerns in the local area.
"
We’ve reached out to some other school districts
and we’ve talked to some safety professionals," Superindent Dr. Dominick Palma said at the January Board of Education meeting. "It’s resulted in numerous ideas
in how we continue looking at improving out safety within our schools."
Like Merrick Patch on Facebook by clicking here.
One change has already taken place, as the district has closed the gap in the mornings when doors were open and hall monitors were not present.
"All of the before school programs have agreed
that they are responsible for monitoring the doors at that stage of the game,
and then our staff is coming in earlier," Palma said.
Also, all visitors are now required to present identification upon entry to any of the district's buildings, but Palma said that school officials are still working on other measures to ensure safety of the children. One common concern from parents, Palma said, is how to identify who someone is and why they are entering the building prior to entry, and he said some technological ideas are being explored.
One idea that was thrown out was to give police access to the school's camera system, which would only be used in emergencies. That way, cops in the command unit could have eyes inside the school and could communicate pivotal details to officers on the ground.
Other ideas shared by visitors at the meeting included installing a panic button and having a security guard at the door.
What do you think is the best plan for security in Merrick Schools? Tell us in the comments section below.
MORE TOP NEWS
Merrick Schools Discuss Safety Issues
Comments + Leave a Comment
Loading comments ...
Boards
All Boards »
Suzie Alvey May 23, 2013 at 05:20 pm
Mike, The children are sooo cute! A few of them are from your area.
Mary May 23, 2013 at 09:27 am
Correction on spelling: Susan Becchina or "Soo" as we know and love her!
Bobby Stokel May 21, 2013 at 11:17 am
Thank you to everyone so far in showing your support. We still need more signatures so please help…Read More :-)
Tammy Lovinlife Snowden May 21, 2013 at 09:47 pm
Thank you so much for posting this blog. This happened to be my husbands cousin whom was missing…Read More since Sunday. God is amazing how I was led to this blog, again I thank you, and to let you know you helped someone with this information.
Michael Ganci (Editor) May 20, 2013 at 12:37 am
We just posted. I was at the scene. Hope this helps! MG…Read More http://merrick.patch.com/groups/breaking-news/p/woman-struck-by-train-at-merrick-lirr-station
Zach T May 17, 2013 at 07:20 pm
The School board is a bunch of morons if they want to remove this designation! There were 0 problems…Read More like this when Malucci was in office, this new superintendent is a waste of space, money, and cares more about his own paycheck then our kids! Between school security, and now this, I motion that we get rid of that skell!