In the wake of the elementary school killings in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, people in communities nationwide are asking themselves what safety measures their own schools might have. Even while the situation in Newtown was unfolding, word reached other school districts across the country, including Harvard.
Interim Superintendent Joe Connelly heard the breaking news around noon that day, he told the Press; he was at home because of illness, he said. Connelly phoned Principal Linda Dwight at Hildreth Elementary School and Principal Jim O’Shea at the Bromfield School, alerting them to the events in Newtown.
The principals, in turn, informed their faculty and staff. Dwight sent out an email to teachers at the elementary school, briefing them on the situation and asking them not to converse about it where children might overhear them.
“This is a discussion that students should first have in the safety of their homes,” Connelly said.
Both Dwight and O’Shea also sent email letters to parents in Harvard last weekend.
On Monday morning, staff members at both Hildreth and Bromfield held before-school meetings to discuss their own concerns and also how best to respond if students raised questions related to the shootings. The outcome, Connelly said, was a decision to take different approaches at the two schools.
At Bromfield, the middle and high school, where most students had probably heard at least some news reports over the weekend, a certain amount of discussion of the events and the problem of violence in society would be appropriate, Connelly said. But at the elementary school, he explained, many students had been completely sheltered from reports of the killings. So guidance counselor Christine Reale would talk privately with any students who raised the issue or appeared anxious about it.
Another decision that grew out of the meetings, Connelly reported, was to revisit the idea of a buzz-in system for the front door at Bromfield. (A door camera and buzzer were installed last year at Hildreth.) O’Shea will research systems that are in place at other schools in the area.
“We have to be vigilant about strangers in the school,” Connelly said. “. . . No parent would be offended [to be asked for identification], knowing that you are doing something for the safety of the kids.”
Crisis plans updated
School administrators began updating emergency plans for Harvard schools last August, Connelly said, in conjunction with the police and fire chiefs, the school nurse, and many others. The result is not a one-size-fits-all plan, but rather a range of responses tailored to many different situations – a missing child, a hazardous materials spill, a weather emergency, a lock-down.
“Every school system has to have a crisis plan in place,” Connelly said.
According to Dwight, the elementary school has three basic emergency drills: a fire drill; a “safety in place” drill; and a drill for a safe shelter in another location. Dwight said students have already practiced the fire drill. She explained that teachers are thoroughly familiar with the other drills but said it would not be a good idea for the children to practice those drills immediately after an incident because of the anxiety it might create for them.
Each of the safety plans is updated every year, Dwight said, to keep current with staff changes. Various faculty and staff members serve as point people, with particular assignments in case of emergencies.
In her career as an educator, Dwight has more than once dealt with the aftermath of violence and its effect on children. The 2006 shootings at the West Nickel Mines school, in which five young Amish girls were killed and five others wounded, were in Lancaster County, Penn., less than three miles from the school where Dwight was principal at the time. She also helped students cope with their emotions in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Dwight observed that the teachers in Connecticut had followed their own safety plan very well, locking classroom doors, moving children away from doors and windows, and keeping children as calm as possible until police arrived.
Connelly noted that many teachers worry about what to say to children after traumatic news such as this, but he expressed confidence that they would be able to help their students.
“Caring teachers have the ability to find the right words,” he said.
