The Cherry Hill school district hosted its first safety and security forum in the auditorium at Cherry Hill High School West last Tuesday.
The session lasted almost 90 minutes and addressed a range of topics not limited to “active shooter” situations, including district administration and staff training, district mental health initiatives, police presence and response times and how issues can be addressed outside of school and at home.
On the dais were Jeff Gale, the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of School Preparedness and Emergency Planning; Darryl Williams, School Safety Specialist for the education department; Jennifer DiStefano, student assistance counselor at Cherry Hill High School East; Dr. Harry Green, a clinical and forensic psychologist who is a township native and graduate of the Cherry Hill schools; district Director of Security Anthony Saporito; security expert Dennis Tully and Cherry Hill Police Chief William “Bud Monaghan.
Gale started the forum by addressing gun-related school violence.
“I think everybody should take a breath and remember that every morning when your kids get out of your car … they have left the most dangerous activity they’re going to get engaged in for the day — driving with you — to the safest place they’ll spend the rest of their time,” he said.
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t still have a responsibility to pay attention to best practices and do what we can to make sure that our schools are as safe and secure as possible.”
Williams discussed a recent visit to a pair of Cherry Hill schools to observe their respective lockdown drills. Ninety-nine percent of the time, respective to these exercises, he observed, teachers, administrators and others involved come away with a different perspective after seeing these drills performed in real time. Williams added that he thought the drills were effective relative to safety and security concerns within the district.
“We are unique with security measures in place when it comes to personnel,” Saporito noted. “We are the only school district in the state of New Jersey that has a K-12 police department. It was originally established for two officers in each high school,” he explained. “At the time, they were not armed due to the feeling of not wanting to have weapons inside a school building.”
That changed in early 2017, months after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. With the help of the board of education, school Superintendent Joseph Meloche and Chief Monaghan, police officers became armed in both high schools. Five more officers were hired, so that all three middle schools were covered by police.
Monaghan then revealed that average response time to a reported issue at any of the district’s 18 schools averages fewer than two minutes — given the time of day — because vehicles and equipment are deployed on a daily basis.
That stands in contrast to the national average of three to five minutes, or, in locations such as rural Arizona, two hours or more, according to Saporito.
“Building these relationships is key,” Monaghan advised. “And that’s so important because that barrier is broken down. When we first came into the schools, the kids and the teachers asked ‘What are you doing here?’ Now they walk up to our officers, shake our hands, they’re happy to see them.”
Before police interaction is necessary, however, crucial evaluations are made by school staff and outside mental health to properly assess students for potentially harmful situations.
“I have some good news and bad news in that regard: violence is pretty rare,” Green acknowledged. “The fact that it is rare is a good thing, but as an evaluator, it creates a challenge, since behavior that occurs infrequently is hard to predict when and where.
“As a forensic evaluator, he added, “what you’re trying to do is look at factors that are known and then assess one individual’s status on those factors. The challenge is that … many of the folks we evaluate who have issues don’t go on to commit violent acts.”
Regarding the efficacy of security vestibules as opposed to metal detectors, Gale said “91 percent of all (school) attacks come as a result of someone the victim knows … and who is not an outside threat, but whose threat can be assessed and contained inside an enclosure like a vestibule.”
He also said that subjecting such a high volume of students — particularly at the high school level — to metal screening on a daily basis wouldn’t be a smart use of resources.
Gale addressed the possibility of arming teachers, saying he “didn’t think a law will ever be passed to allow teachers to carry in school.”
Citing the hundreds of hours of training law enforcement officials receive to properly handle a firearm, or given how often mistakes are made by professionals, Gale said he believed it was not, in any way, a viable solution to arm district staff.
“Your school district has been engaged in getting what knowledge they can and what expertise they can from this office,” he said. “So it’s important to remember this is a process, an ongoing process. It never ends.
“It takes the engagement of the entire community.”
Video of the forum can be accessed by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqg4A2tiz5xUws1eTqhGsGQ.
Full panelist biographies can be found at: https://www.chclc.org/uploaded/Safety_Security_bios_10.29.19.pdf,
A comprehensive list of district security and health resources can be found at https://www.chclc.org/uploaded/Safety_Forum_chart_10.29.2019.pdf.
