In Aftermath of Parkland Shooting, Lehigh Valley School Districts Answer Call to Add Armed Security

In March, barely a month after the mass shooting at Parkland, Fla., high school, two parents appeared before the Southern Lehigh School Board with an urgent plea.

"I speak on behalf of a lot of parents who are very concerned with the safety of our kids. I don't feel safe with the measures the district has in place."

"There has to be something done soon, especially in the high school and middle school. There are hundreds of kids in these halls, and the way it is, someone can easily get in here."

All across the Lehigh Valley, parents and school officials were having similar discussions in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 students and staff members dead and an equal number injured.

Many school districts in Lehigh and Northampton counties took action, including Southern Lehigh, which sought a grant to add a second armed officer to patrol its five schools.

A Morning Call analysis found that since the Florida shooting, school districts in the two counties have formed their own police departments, added officers, bought new technology and held active shooter training. Districts reported 50 armed police or security guards among 17 school districts in the Lehigh Valley.

"The question now for a lot of people is do we arm or do we not arm?"

Shifting Security Priorities

The move to add armed security comes as a national poll in May conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International found 80 percent of parents surveyed support armed security in schools.

Locally, KRE provided one armed and three unarmed guards for athletic events for the Northern Lehigh School District. KRE also provided armed security for school buildings in the Northwestern Lehigh School District.

But droves of parents who turned out at a public meeting in March led Northwestern Lehigh to change course and go with its own police force with officers powered to make arrests.

"What we heard loud and clear at the community forum was they wanted to have more armed presence."

Armed personnel fall into three categories — school resource officers, who are attached to local police departments but work in the district; police officers who work directly for the district; and security staff provided by contractors.

Those taking action include Easton Area, where 10 more part-time officers were hired, and Pen Argyl Area and Catasauqua Area, which will have armed security for the first time.

"We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars locking up our buildings in the last 10 years and putting in security cameras in every hallway and everything. This is just another layer of security that we felt we'd better add because these school shootings are so out of hand."

Active Shooter Training Another Tool

Easton Area committed $250,000 to $300,000 to hiring armed staff. John Remaley, Easton Area's director of safe schools, hoped to hire additional part-time officers, while taking care to pick people who are the right fit.

"I want them to not only be there to provide security and safety, but to interact and establish relationships with these children and let these kids know, you know what, the police officer is a resource for me, and he or she's a person I can go to and trust."

Northampton Area, which hired its first police officer in August 2006, now has two in-house armed police officers, eight unarmed guards and several hall monitors. The district's security staff is going through active shooter training.

Armed Security No Panacea

Saucon Valley School District's Superintendent Craig Butler noted that armed officers alone don't guarantee student safety, pointing to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas incident where an armed resource officer was on campus.

"It's a little bit unrealistic to think one person could be everywhere at every moment in a large building, and I think that's really what it requires."

Even as districts boost security personnel, being as prepared as possible remains critical. Northampton Area's Kovalchik said he intends to constantly evaluate best practices and procedures for safety.

"Let's face it: law enforcement, 90 percent of the time, we want to be proactive, proactive, proactive. Typically, what do we end up being? Reactive. We're already 5 seconds into somebody's actions."