UPDATE Westport Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer said tonight she was “saddened by the horrific events in Florida.”
Her tweet followed an email sent earlier in the day to parents on the school shooting in Parkland, Florida Wednesday that killed 17.
“How did our schools become the target of such violence?” Palmer asked in her tweet.
She added, “We must work together to end these attacks on our schools…and innocent students.”
Palmer’s email to parents addressed the events in Parkland and outlined security measures in Westport schools. A copy of the email was made available to WestportNow only on Friday morning.
The text:
“Dear Families of Westport Students,
“Yesterday, waves of shock and profound sadness permeated all schools in our country as again we heard about another school shooting. One official reported in the press that this was the 18th school shooting in 2018, and it was one of the most deadliest in terms of loss of life.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the community of Parkland, Florida as it grieves the loss of its loved ones and struggles to come to terms with this horrific event.
“Schools are the heart of any community, housing its most vulnerable citizens when in operation. On any given school day, we have 21% of our Westport residents sitting in our classrooms. Ensuring that our schools are safe and secure for our students and staff remains our preeminent goal. Nothing supersedes keeping your children safe – nothing.
“With the level of emotional upset felt in our community by the recent news in Florida, there have been some parent inquiries about our school security. While it would not be appropriate to share details of our overall plans in this communication, it is important to know that our District has comprehensive safety and security plans in place at each of our schools that have been reviewed by our first responders. We work in a strong partnership with all of our first responders, and Chief Koskinas and I regularly communicate, as we did last evening, whenever there are events that can have a ripple impact in our community.
“Our District trains staff how to be prepared and to keep our students safe in any event that we may encounter, from a high-impact weather event to an active shooter situation. Every school routinely conducts lock down drills and other emergency drills. Ironically, Staples High school had informed its students earlier this week that in homeroom today the school would be reviewing its lock down procedures for a scheduled drill after the break. The school will continue with its preparation for this drill, but has modified the presentation to be sensitive to recent events.
“We will continue to review and reflect upon all of our security measures to remain prepared and to enhance any deterrents to school violence. This past Monday, a team of administrators, District security staff, both our Police Chief and Deputy Chief, and a representative of our Board of Education conducted a site visit to a neighboring school district that employs School Resource Officers (SROs). SROs are specially trained police officers assigned to work directly in schools to support school safety. Having a School Resource Officer in our District for 2018-19 has been under review for the past few months, as well as other ongoing initiatives. We are constantly seeking to assess every aspect of our security program. Our safety plans don’t just sit on a shelf, but are discussed, reviewed, and improved on an ongoing basis as we gain new information.
“While much of our work on school safety and security is behind the scenes, we never stop seeking to improve our approaches, protocols, and training to support the well-being of our students and staff. In response to parent requests for more information, we will provide a presentation on school security in the upcoming weeks.
“Please do not hesitate to contact your student’s school administrator if you have specific questions or concerns related to the safety of our schools.
“Sincerely
“Colleen Palmer”
Her tweet followed by almost 24 hours a statement by Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe offering condolences to the families and people in Parkland and calling for renewed efforts to tighten gun control laws.
“Congress must pass legislation that protects our youth and all citizens with reasonable and common sense gun regulations consistent with Second Amendment rights,” he said.
“There is absolutely no excuse for our national leaders to ignore this problem again.”
