Dist. 300 Expects State and Federal Policies to Drive Future School Safety

As classes resumed for Sandy Hook School elementary children in Newtown, Conn. at a neighboring school this morning, sense and sensibility continue to drive security measures in Du Quoin Community Unit District 300.

Dr. Gary Kelly, District 300 Superintendent: "Our hearts go out to the families of Sandy Hook and we continue to review our own safety plan. The thing going through my mind is our kids and how important they are to us."

The deaths at Sandy Hook are unspeakable and the solace we can find here in Du Quoin lies only in the numbers and in the odds of something happening to us as a community.

There are 98,817 public schools in the United States. Among those, Du Quoin District 300 has two of them with a handful of private and special needs schools around us. Of those, 61,140 are elementary schools. The number of private schools is 33,366.

Still, the issue of school safety is now fully on our minds.

"We review our entire safety plan every year with local police and fire departments and with emergency services," said Dr. Kelly. "There are things that we do every day that people don't notice," he said.

"We will re-examine some things," he said.

Security cameras are in place. Access is limited. Some staff members serve as point guards on the premises of both the elementary/middle school building and at the high school. and there is a full set of lock down policies in place. The district utilizes a sheriff's department resource officer.

"It becomes counter productive to talk about it," he said.

By their nature, "public" schools should be public, inviting involvement and participation from the communities that surround them. All the while, the foremost consideration is security of our children.

Dr. Kelly said he can point to only a handful of safety issues over the last 20 years, some of them domestic issues in families, some were bones to pick with teachers or staff members and some involving police incidents in neighborhoods around a school, but not a school itself.

"I believe there are policy changes that will come," Dr. Kelly said. They will be made at the federal and state levels. Locally, "seven people (on the board) will make those decisions."