Schools make gains on security

A flaw in the security at Carlisle schools became obvious during a lockdown exercise last fall. The doors could not be locked from inside the classrooms, meaning there was little to impede an intruder who had entered the buildings.

The issue touched off a wave of parental anxiety about the vulnerability of the six-building campus, where preschool through Grade 8 is taught. Parents wanted a full-scale security system, but the School Committee questioned the cost.

"You do a risk analysis and determine is it worth the amount of money you'd have to spend for something that may only happen, versus money you have to spend," said School Committee member Christy Barbee.

Town officials settled on a compromise, and next week, Town Meeting will vote on whether to allot $25,000 to buy and install lock sets for classroom doors.

In the week after 32 shooting victims and the gunman died at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, safety concerns are haunting parents, students, and educators around the country. Public schools in this area, however, have been taking steps to tighten security since last fall, with their efforts boosted by several violent acts in schools around North America.

Most school districts already have a crisis-management plan in place that, among other things, details how to cope with an armed intruder in a school building. But, as the events at Virginia Tech highlight, a plan on paper can't incorporate all the variables of a crisis.

At the state level, a Senate bill spelling out measures to be taken during a school lockdown is pending before the Committee for Public Safety and Homeland Security.

In the House, a pending bill proposes that the state match half of every dollar communities spend in creating a public-alert notification system during a widespread emergency like that at Virginia Tech.

The system would enable notification by land lines, cell phones, and text messaging, and would resemble programs that school districts such as Westford's initiated on a smaller scale a couple of years ago. Westford's ConnectEd communitywide phone message program calls students' homes and delivers a recorded message.

Certain districts, such as Concord, Stoneham, Winchester, and Woburn, have been at the forefront of school security improvements, according to North Reading police Lieutenant Edward Nolan. He is also commanding officer of the School Threat Assessment Response System, a task force of public-safety representatives and school officials assembled in June 1999 to develop protocols for threatening situations in schools.

A common response is the lockdown, which consists of securing all exterior doors to a building so that no one can enter or exit. Lockdowns have occurred at least twice in this region since last fall, reinforcing the need to rehearse such scenes.

At Burlington High School on Nov. 14, someone noticed a man breaking into an automobile in the parking lot. Police chased the man through woods when they heard a popping noise that sounded like gunfire, said Superintendent James L. Picone. Police rushed to the scene, and all doors were locked.

Because it's less than a mile away on the other side of the wooded lot, Francis Wyman Elementary School also was locked down.

Two days after the Burlington incident, Westford Academy officials cut off access to anyone entering or leaving the high school building. Police had recognized a man in the area who had an outstanding arrest warrant for unarmed robbery.

In general, local schools are easier to protect than college campuses. "At the collegiate level, they want an open experience," said John F. Quinn, business manager for the Tewksbury schools and a member of the district's security team. "At our level, we can lock doors, and at any sign of trouble, we can go into lockdown mode."

Carlisle's mini campus presents a greater challenge. With six buildings on one parcel, even young children have to walk outdoors to get to another building.

This situation raised concerns last fall, when an unidentified man was found lurking near the preschool. After police questioned him, Barbee said, it became apparent that he had no appropriate reason to be there.

Regionally, Tewksbury leads the pack in school safety initiatives by continually preparing for crises and staging surprise mock disasters at its eight schools. The drills cover situations that include evacuations, chemical spills, and lockdowns.

In 2004, faculty and police simulated an intruder in Tewksbury Memorial High School, testing the school's ability to have a mobile command center on site within minutes and using technology to override the public-address system so that command center officers could communicate with individual classrooms during a lockdown. The high school also is equipped with security cameras that transmit images to a monitor in the mobile command center.

The newly constructed Woburn Memorial High School is sectioned by doors that can be locked to contain an intruder to one area. Security cameras are everywhere, and exterior doors cannot be entered without a magnetic key.

According to the state School Building Authority, about half of the state's 1,800 school buildings have some type of camera system.

Some other issues of concern were noted by Ilana Freedman, head of the Tyngsborough-based Gerard Group, a counterterrorism consulting firm.

By better evaluating personality characteristics, Freedman said, students like Seung-Hui Cho of Virginia Tech can be pre-empted. She also said it is crucial for students to be trained to resist an armed aggressor, and noted the Virginia Tech students who barricaded a classroom door, thus saving lives when Cho tried to enter.

"If people are trained to be able to react appropriately," Freedman said, "they will feel much more confident about what they need to do in a situation where they find themselves threatened."

Carlisle school board member Barbee had a different perspective. "We drill our kids on where to be. Keep away from the doors, keep your heads down," she said. "But if you can't lock the doors, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference."

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.