Representatives of the ‘Cat Safety Study Planning Committee met earlier this month and discussed the county-wide lockout that occurred in Broome last month along with what the Hancock Central School District (HCSD) is doing to stress the importance of safety training.
On December 12 the Chenango Valley and Whitney Point school districts reported that they put schools into lockout. According to a statement from the Broome County Sheriff’s Office law enforcement officials were responding to a safety concern regarding an individual outside of the schools.
The individual was eventually apprehended, and schools lifted the lockout.
This topic started off the meeting after Dr. Albert Penna raised the situation to the board, and that was directly followed by a presentation from Committee Members Rick Shaw and John Mauro.
Shaw gave a brief overview of how HCSD continues to work to ensure quality safety training for staff, and Mauro discussed the district’s building and infrastructure current needs.
Mauro said it's important for the district to continue working on topics including staff and student training, badges, access to buildings, cameras, phones, signage, visitor screening, closing down campuses, communications plans, and lock out channels.
He added that as for long term needs, the district has to look into investing in metal panels on exterior glass doors, front hall security doors, cross corridor doors, along with more card readers, and lock down buttons.
In closing, committee members discussed the potential of having a dedicated person in each of the school buildings with access to view security cameras. Members said having one person in each building could allow the schools to more easily monitor their own buildings and more quickly respond to issues in their own schools.
There is another meeting scheduled for this month, and more information will be released as it is discussed.