WESTPORT — Threats of school violence have spread across the nation recently, and Westport’s schools chief said Thursday as a result of that “disturbing” social-media trend, police officers will be deployed to each of the town’s schools Friday.
Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice, in a statement early Thursday afternoon, said after a warning from the state Department of Education on Wednesday, it was determined threatening posts “have not originated in our town and there have been no specific threats to our schools.”
However, he added, “some of our students have mentioned this trend to faculty and administrators today.”
According to state education officials, Scarice said, state law-enforcement authorities who investigated recent threats elsewhere “determined that these threats are not credible.”
Nonetheless, the superintendent added, “As a precaution, the Westport Police Department has offered to station an officer outside each of our schools [Friday] for the school day.
“Again, although these threats are not deemed credible or specific to Westport, at a minimum, this presence will serve to re-assure any members of our school community who might have concerns about this social media trend, particularly for tomorrow,” Sacrice added.
Those newly assigned police officers are in addition to a security guard assigned to each school, a school resource officer at Staples High School, and a police officer dedicated exclusively to routine patrols outside school campuses.
The superintendent also said anyone who learns about a threat to Westport schools, “it is critically important that you make a report” to Westport police and school officials “immediately.”
We continue to turn a blind eye to this ongoing school violence issue. The most recent events should serve as a warning that reactive is not a strategy and that school officials are not equipped to make decisions concerning threat assessment (nor should they necessarily be). Many people fought very hard to finally get a School Resource Officer in Staples High School, finally acknowledging what every other school system in Fairfield County (and across the country) has known for many years, that a trained SRO is highly effective as a proactive presence and a daily positive experience for students on many levels. It is past time to expand the program to all Westport schools and give all our students and school staff the comfort of security, familiarity with positive law enforcement, professional intercession for educators and piece of mind for parents. Face it, we opt for home security systems with yard signs thereof, in essence, to “suggest” criminals go elsewhere to ply their trade, why not do the same for our most precious commodity? Private security guards are not an alternative and a waste of time and money. The millions spent on door locks, hardened glass and intercoms was a joke considering most of these situations the shooter is already in the school or known to the school. As for the opposition to a gun in school, there are a growing number of parents who, in hindsight, are probably wishing their was one in fully trained hands of a professional SRO. Superintendent Sacrice, expand the SRO program now.