CT’s Emergency Management Association says school safety plan hasn’t included police input
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OLD SAYBROOK, CT (WFSB) — The state of Connecticut has been planning for months for back to school amidst a pandemic.
However, the president of the state’s Emergency Management Association said that safety plan has not included police input.
In a letter obtained exclusively by Eyewitness News, Old Saybrook Police Chief Michael Spera, who also heads the Connecticut Emergency Management Association, said there has been a lot of talk about in-class learning, distance learning, but he says not about the keeping kids safe from the things we worried about prior to Coronavirus, like school shootings.
“I think our educators have done a phenomenal job under a lot of pressure to get a plan to the state under a certain amount of time. That amount of time did not allow, nor did it encourage all the public safety leaders in each community to get together with the educational leaders to make sure that the plan doesn’t only protect students and staff from COVID-19, but also protects them from the other things that we were afraid of pre-COVID-19,” Spera said.
Many schools in Connecticut are older and not air conditioned, or might not have proper ventilation. Current Centers for Disease Control back-to-school guidelines state “Increase circulation of outdoor air within buildings by opening windows and doors if it is safe to do so.”
Spera says, the problem is, when exactly is it safe to do so? No one can predict when danger lurks.
“So a lot of the schools are encouraged to have doors open, where the secure campus philosophy we know works to keep school, school campuses safe and kids safe. And not doing that and not having that in your plan is going to be an issue,” Spera said.
He has written a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont expressing his concerns. In the letter he said “I implore you to direct Commissioner Cardona to reject any and all back-to-school plans from school districts that in order to return kids to the classroom, are forced to lower existing school security standards jeopardizing the safety of school campuses, our teachers, and most importantly Connecticut’s kids.”
Parents weighed in on what they think about the issue.
“It could be a whole other can of worms we are going to open up now. And you know there’s plenty of people that can capitalize on such a loophole that would exist there. You’d like to think not, but definitely there are people who would,” said parent Curt Anderson.
“I actually have been a teacher for nine years so yeah, actually that would make me very uncomfortable if my classroom door was opening,” said parent and teacher Emily Prete. “I mean, we went to such great lengths after Sandy Hook and everything, with licenses at the door, or only one way in one way out for visitors, I think open doors poses a big concern.”
Spera said having police play catch up after the fact with schools opening would make a difficult situation even harder.
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