With continued sniper shootings in Maryland and Virginia, public school systems in the two states are taking extra security precautions.
Montgomery County Police yesterday released information from a note found at the Saturday sniper shooting in Ashland, Va.
According to a press briefing yesterday evening by Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose, the note's post-script said, "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time."
In response to police warnings about child safety, schools throughout Maryland and Virginia were in stages of lockdown yesterday.
Over 150,000 students in the Richmond area were affected by school closings yesterday. According to the Richmond area school districts, superintendents were prompted by the sniper threats directed to children.
An official statement from the superintendents of public schools in Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico Counties as well as the city of Richmond said that the school closing "supports the need for the concentrated deployment of police manpower and resources in this regional investigation."
Charles Pyle, Virginia Department of Education's acting director of communications, said law enforcement officials have worked carefully with school systems both to protect students and to protect their investigations.
"Law enforcement certainly has an interest in restricting the circle of persons with whom they have sensitive information about on-going investigations," Pyle said. "They're working directly with the local schools and the school divisions are consulting with law enforcement."
School systems in both Maryland and Virginia reported staying in close contact with their local and state police.
"We have had an incredible increase of police patrols in and around the school," said Katie O'Malley-Simpson, coordinator for communications for Charles County Public Schools in Maryland. "We check with the police daily and we make regular decisions about how we're going to proceed."
Ron Pipher, Maryland Department of Education's assistant superintendent for school and community outreach, said that Maryland schools are hoping to stay open despite the sniper incidents.
"The local superintendents' strategy is that for the most part, schools are probably safer for students than being on the streets," Pipher said. "I think if you talk with local superintendents, they want to maintain as much normalcy as they could through this."
O'Malley-Simpson said parents in Charles County have supported keeping schools open.
"We have some calls of concern," she said. "People have had different reactions about whether or not students should be allowed out to recess or about whether we should have outside activities."
Pipher said Maryland school safety plans became much more comprehensive and specific in the past few years.
"We actually started work on this before the Columbine crisis," Pipher said. "Schools have had contingency plans in place for a variety of emergencies."
Pyle said Virginia provides similar resources to school systems.
"Schools are required to have contingency plans to deal with this kind of situation," Pyle said. "A variety of situations are covered in the Model Crisis Management Plan that the state offers as a resource. It's been updated and now includes plans for acts of terrorism."
Although the state provides resources to Virginia schools for crisis situations, Pyle said "decisions about school closures are made at the local level."
Paul Regnier, Coordinator of Community Relations for Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools, said that FCPS has a strong police presence and trains its school staff for unpredictable crisis situations.
"All of our schools have police officers assigned to them," Regnier said. "We also have a central security office that provides what they call Tabletop Training, where all the security officials and school officials sit around for about four hours and discuss a 'nightmare day' situation."
Although school systems are confident that their restrictions are keeping students safe, the restrictions on outdoor activities caused problems for sports teams. Many fall sports are approaching tournament and championship seasons.
Regnier said FCPS, like many public school systems, is still trying to find safe places to hold sports activities.
"We've had trouble trying to schedule our sports teams, and some of the games have been played down south," he said. "But after Saturday night's shooting in Ashland, that doesn't seem like such a good idea."
Read More
Will Ryan’s resignation impact the University’s reaccreditation?
By Leigh Bailey | 1 hours agoDr. Janea Johnson, public relations and data specialist at SACSCOC, said in a written statement to The Cavalier Daily July 28 that “a change in leadership does not automatically become a compliance concern.”
United Healthcare takes over as student health insurance provider
By Lauren Seeliger | 6 hours agoAll University students are required to be medically insured, but the University student plan is only required for students who do not have other, valid health insurance.
University community leaders gather at the Rotunda to speak about interim President Mahoney
By Xander Tilock | 11 hours agoEach speaker addressed concerns over a lack of input from students, faculty, staff and community members in the circumstances which led to former University President Jim Ryan’s resignation and the decision-making process since then.
