Hundreds of people packed into HSE High School’s Leonard Auditorium Wednesday night for a look at what the City of Fishers and the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools have been doing and plan to do in the future about school safety. The officials presenting the forum had an important message…school safety was an important issue before the Noblesville school shooting and will continue to be an important issue going forward.
HSE School Superintendent Allen Bourff told the audience the school corporation and the City of Fisher will be working toward expanding the number School Resource Officers, sworn police officers, in HSE school buildings. Bourff said officers must be trained and the money must be set aside, but “expansion will be coming very soon.”
Dr. Bourff and Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness hosted the forum. Panel members included Fishers High School Assistant Principal Ryan Taylor, Inclusion Officer Erica Buchanan-Rivera, Assistant Superintendent Mike Beresford, HSE Mental Health Coordinator Brooke Lawson, Fishers Police Chief Mitch Thompson and School Resource Officer Mike Johnson.
Audience members wrote down questions and the panel fielded as many as time allowed.
Here are some of the issues and questions raised at the forum, and responses by panel members:
What about metal detectors at entrances to schools?
Dr. Bourff: The first issue is finance, how would you pay for such a security system, with the number of doors used to enter the buildings? Also, there is a logistical challenge to processing 3,200-3,300 students in 15-20 minutes. It’s not just the cost of the metal detectors, but each metal detector would need to be staffed, resulting in increased labor costs. Those issues must be overcome to implement such a security system. There is some research indicating students can work around those metal detectors, although technology is improving.
What about arming teachers?
Dr. Bourff: “We do have well-trained armed personnel in our buildings every day, our SROs (School Resource Officers). We are concerned that we would have the level of preparation necessary under stressful situations for our staff to be successful. It’s very difficult even for our armed professionals to provide that accuracy under stressful circumstances.”
What about the responsibility of gun owners securing their firearms when not in use?
Police Chief Thompson: A friend told the chief that if a child takes an action with a gun the child obtained from their parents, authorities should charge the parent with the same crime, then maybe, finally, people would start to secure their weapons. The chief then explained how often people keep guns in their cars unsecured and report those guns as stolen.
Dr. Bourff said all questions and answers from the forum, even those that were not addressed during the event. will be posted online.
The main message from those speaking at this forum is that school safety is a top priority for the city and school corporation, and has been for many years.
As far as metal detectors, they need to realize that as government institutions, they have to be as secure as courthouses and federal buildings these days. Kids are committing more and more crimes and at an earlier age.
Fort Harrison is the largest office building in the state with 5,000 employees. They have ONE entrance only and everyone goes through security each day. It’s a pain in the butt but lives are saved due to smart solutions like this. They have had alot of people make attempts to bring guns and knives, but none have been successful. They have drills all the time.
You go through security at the court house to pay your property tax bill. This is the world we live in today.
It’s not right to sends kids back to school this fall without anything in place to ensure that a child can’t bring a gun in a backpack into the building. Resource officers are helpful but not the solution. This is especially so for the schools with older children – middle schools and high schools. These schools are simply too large for any resource officer to handle.
Especially now that we can see that this child in Noblesville will most likely receive counseling/alternative school and maybe juvi detention as a last resort per a criminal prosecutor avoiding adult jail time. Kids will be more emboldened to try things.
The schools need to radically change how they allow access to buildings. This is a building security issue.