After mass murders in Buffalo and in Texas, city school officials are tightening security in the buildings, eroding parent access. The new rules from Interim Superintendent Tonja Williams include advance requests to get inside and advance approvals.
That drew a blast from We the People parent activist Sam Radford.
“We're just about to get back in the schools and the first time something happens, you're going to immediately have a knee-jerk reaction without including people in that process and just think you're doing something for our safety, but you do it for us, but without us. Nothing for us without us. You don't need to make decisions for us without us at the table,” Radford said.
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore disagreed, saying hard decisions must be made in difficult times.
“With all that's going on in Buffalo and in Texas, especially with all the copy-cat type of things that can occur, I think it was the right thing to do. I don't expect it to be in place for a long time. But, especially after Buffalo and Texas and the threat of copycats, I commend the superintendent for taking this decisive action,” Rumore said.
Security in suburban schools has long been an issue.
Hamburg Superintendent Michael Cornell is president of the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association.
“We in Hamburg have done a good job of fortifying our entry ways. Lots of other school districts have done the same thing. In addition, many of us have School Resource Officers, other armed security personnel and we certainly continue to update our safety protocols around lockdown drills and the like,” Cornell said.
Radford said this is a typical decision-making process, with many community residents not being asked, but being told.
“Why Buffalo was targeted in the first place? Because we are a community that's segregated, one of the most segregated communities in this country, who is not segregated just by race, we're also segregated by class. Basically, low-income people of color are having people making decisions about them without them at the table, in the name of what's best for them and what's best for their children,” he said.
Rumore said the district needs to do more basic security, making sure the buildings have locks on doors, which actually work.
“We have a couple of schools where there aren't any locks on a couple of doors, but they have some security there. Not only do we need locks on the doors, we need an alarm on the doors, so when the door is opened, there's a bell that rings some place so the people know somebody's accessing the door, because you can have kids open the door from the inside,” he said.
The BTF president said the union is surveying teachers to see what they think of security in the buildings.
