Board members discuss school safety

OXFORD —  The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month has members of the school board rethinking school safety in Oxford Hills.

During Monday's board meeting, school board member Buddy Coffren, from Paris, stated his concern that Oxford Hills Middle School, where his granddaughter attends, could not be secured swiftly and safely.

Coffren said he was particularly concerned with the vulnerability of the school's  portable classrooms.

Unlike other schools, many students do not need to go through the OHMS main entrance, Coffren said. In his opinion, that made it more difficult to protect students.

Especially near the end of the school day, there appeared to be little adult supervision and students were allowed to move freely between the buildings, Coffren said.

The insecurity of the portables, particularly in light of the Sandy Hook massacre, ought to put OHMS further up on the list of buildings eligible to receive state funding for replacement, Coffren contended.

As a citizen, he would only feel completely safe if all students were in the main building, he said.

"Right now, those kids can't be protected, because they're roaming around outside – and if anything happened like what happened at Sandy Hook, those kids would be mowed down," he said.

Coffren reported he had brought the issue to the attention of State Representative Terry Hayes and believed the concern would be communicated to the Department of Education.

On Tuesday, Superintendent Rick Colpitts said he appreciated Coffren's concerns.

The district has an emergency plan for OHMS and doors to the portables remain locked during class time, but Colpitts acknowledged the exterior classrooms posed unique security challenges.

"Every period there are about 150 to 200 kids leaving the building and going into a portable and an hour later going back ... with 14 classrooms outside the building there is an increased risk of danger," Colpitts said.

At Monday's meeting Norway's Jared Cash said he had received numerous phone calls from parents expressing their worry about school safety since the Connecticut shooting.

"I didn't get any questions about the budget, I got questions about this topic," Cash told board members.

He suggested the board could take the opportunity to examine its funding for security systems and procedures.

Rick Colpitts reported that local police had conducted site visits at eight of 10 SAD 17 schools in the last three weeks.

Board Vice Chair Don Ware, from Norway, said he toured the Rowe Elementary School in Norway and was impressed with the security precautions taken.

At the same time, Ware appeared uncomfortable with the level of security at public schools, suggesting the precautions made schools less open to the community. 

"It's like a fortress now," he said.