In Philly, coping with Sandy Hook
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
In Philly, coping with Sandy Hook
Kristen Graham
Even the Philadelphia School District’s top security official was affected by the Connecticut school shootings.
“We’re all shaken by it,” said Chief Inspector Cynthia Dorsey. “Everyone’s on edge.”
On Monday, Dorsey and other top officials sat down to evaluate the district’s safety needs.
“Are we as safe as we can be? Are our perimeters secure? Are we making sure that our doors are locked after intake in the morning? Are we identifying any visitors in the building? If, God forbid, something like that were to happen, our students, our staff, our administrators, are they in a state of preparedness? Are there things we should be doing differently?” Dorsey said.
The first defense, Dorsey stressed, is prevention, and that’s what the district is focusing on.
All district high schools have metal detectors or scanning equipment, and all buildings have secured entrances.
But the Sandy Hook entrances were secured, too.
“There are metal detectors, scans, but it happened so quickly,” Dorsey said.
School staff and others have been calling her office for guidance, Dorsey said, and her staff have been reassuring them.
“We’re reiterating - we have cameras, we have phones, we have perimeter security,” Dorsey said. City police provide extra security during school openings and closings.
School psychologists, too, dealt with the Sandy Hook tragedy.
At Greenfield Elementary in Center City, veteran school psychologist Holly Cohen said she had conversations with a few teachers about how their kids were handling the news.
"I just told them, 'Be watchful. If there's any rumors, quell them. Little kids don't need to know much, and in older kids, say, 'This is what I know, this is what I know not to be true. These are normal feelings to feel. How do you feel?'"
The Sandy Hook tragedy was far enough removed that most students didn't react much to it, unless television news had been on a lot over the weekend, or if they had experienced loss in their own lives recently, Cohen said.
Tracy Paskiewicz, another district psychologist, also dealt with the issue in her two West Philadelphia schools.
"We try to bring the conversation back to safety - 'We're safe here at school, the kids in this building are safe.' And we also try to keep schedules normal. We want to talk about what happened, but we don't it to be the main focus," said Paskiewicz.
Paskiewicz and Rosalyn Pitts, another Philadelphia school psychologist working at two elementary schools in South Philadelphia, both suggested keeping it simple, looking to children for clues about what they know, using developmentally appropriate language, answering questions honestly but without overly disturbing detail.
"All they want to know is, 'Am I safe?'" Pitts said. "My biggest thing is: just turn off the television."
At the independent Philadelphia School in Center City, head of school Amy Purcell Vorenberg said she felt it was also important to support the adults in the building - many of whom are dealing with this kind of tragedy for the first time in their professional lives.
Vorenberg said she spent much of her weekend answering worried emails from parents and teachers who felt anxious about how to support students on Monday.
So in consultation with the school's two psychologists, Vorenberg convened an impromptu staff meeting before school. She asked her faculty "not to conduct any large-group meetings or conversations, but to be really careful listeners."
Teachers talked to students one-on-one, reassuring them, telling the students who brought up the shootings on the playground that "we're not going to talk about that today at school."
After student dropoff, Vorenberg held a meeting for parents who wanted to ask questions about how the school was handling the tragedy.
"I've dealt with things ranging from requests to hire armed guards and providing locks on our doors and windows to, 'We really need to hug the teachers and thank them,'" Vorenberg said.
Public schools in Philadelphia have no provisions in place for such potential catastrophes beyond the normal shelter-in-place and lock-down procedures. Don't believe for a minute that there are "perimeter security" or even a school police officer in the school (many elementary schools have school police present only on certain days of the week). Ask a school police officer or a school principal what the procedure is if a gunman starts shooting in a schoolyard with school children present - there is none.— Boru
Yea, so let's stick it to School Police and reduce police presence in many schools and even completely de-staff School Police in some smaller schools altogether. "It's all in the name of economics" they said. "It's the new normal around here." Then, after borrowing another $300 Million, just to keep the lights on, Prince William Hite, who is making Ackerman Money by the way and hasn't given one dollar back from that $300,000.00 salary, decided to benevolently give lucrative pay raises to 25 Non-Union Staffers in Administration. Not for students, Not for Educators working on the front lines. These 25 staffers were well paid for what they did. Mostly nothing by the way. I know several of them and only know of one that actually works and MAY deserve a pay raise in NORMAL circumstances. But these are not normal circumstances. Not only should these 25 raises be reversed, but the entire non union, non-teaching administration staff must give back 12% of their salary as a symbol of shared sacrifice. They can afford to do it. Hite, and anyone making more than $100,000.00 must dig deep and give back more. The people actually working with the students day-in, day-out deserve every cent they make. These administration people are there mostly because of their political patronage and who they know. They are fat and lazy - I mean really fat. In these austere times, isn't it finally time to adjust these phony-baloney out-of-whack high salaries and put them in a more realistic level? Yes, it's time. It's your move Dr. Hite.— DarnelX
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
