School districts talk about security

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - What happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut Friday had school districts across central Indiana reviewing their own security plans.

“It’s a very sad time, but we understand, unfortunately, it’s a reality,” said Lebanon Schools Superintendent Robert Taylor. “It brings home one more time the need to continue to maintain a strong vigilance”.

Taylor said school administrators and staff went over procedures and scenarios to make sure they’re prepared should the worst happen.

“The times have changed dramatically,” said Taylor.

And schools have had to change, too.

“I think you’ll see in most public schools that have been recently renovated or built, we now have controlled access,” said Taylor.

“We want to welcome all our families into school, but we also want them to know we do control entrances and access to the buildings”.

At the middle school, that means all doors are locked and visitors must be buzzed inside.

“You have to go immediately into the main office so our secretary is the first point of contact,” said Lebanon Middle School principal Doyle Dunshee.

“Even if you get into the office area, the doors are locked to get out of the office so you have to be buzzed out of the office into the main student area”.

The system is part of a million-dollar renovation that also added more surveillance cameras to the complex.

Lebanon schools, like many districts, coordinates with local police and fire departments to work together in a school emergency.

In Carmel, an email was sent to parents to reassure them that district leaders “take school safety very seriously”.

The email said that for several years the school corporation has worked closely with the Carmel Police Department to “develop the most comprehensive and effective school safety procedures possible".

Some of those procedures include safety drills held regularly at each school and a visitor ID system.

But school security expert Chuck Hibbert says too many schools have not made changes.

He told 24-Hour News 8 security spending has returned to what it was even before the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado in 1999.

“In these difficult economic times, schools are struggling.

And so to make those kinds of physical improvements, it takes money and if you're balancing 'are we going to spent $50 thousand to upgrade our door hardware and put in a buzzer system, or are we going to hire or keep a classroom teacher?' said Hibbert.

“Those are difficult decisions that school officials are having to make and so the reality is it takes an event like today to think about maybe we do need to balance that scale and make sure we're doing everything reasonably that we can to protect our kids."

Like any other parent, Dunshee thought of his own children Friday.

“I’m thinking, ‘what would I do and what would I want the teacher to do to protect my child?’” he said.

 “We do everything we can to ensure that safety".