The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut is causing the St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) to re-evaluate their security system. The school system was on a steady course to upgrade security at all schools. School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano told the school board on Wednesday that he hopes to convince the county commissioners to pay for accelerating that plan, perhaps in the current fiscal year using some of the county’s fund balance. He also says some additional upgrades may be called for, including making door locking mechanisms better located.
Cost of accelerating the program to all schools and upgrading the security system could be upwards of a million dollars. The exact amount is still under review and has not yet been added to the superintendent’s proposed budget which was unveiled at Wednesday’s meeting.
“All of our holidays were a little darker because of this event,” he said. The shooting of 20 students and six adults in the school, as well as the shooter and his mother, took place on December 14. Dr. Martirano explained how the system reacted quickly to the horrible event, including calls to every student by their principal. Some homes with more than one student in several schools may have received multiple calls over that weekend. “The ongoing response is communicate, communicate, communicate and when in doubt communicate more,” he explained.
Can it happen in St. Mary’s County? There isn’t a 100 percent guarantee it won’t, Dr. Martirano said, so the best that the system can do is to prevent it from happening as best as possible. In spite of the best laid plans, “Bad things happen to good people,” he observed.”
The Superintendent’s Safety and Security Advisory Committee is reviewing all procedures and safety mechanisms and intends to hold an open meeting on February 4th. The school system’s head of safety and security, F. Michael Wyant, is a former division commander with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
“We don’t play with anything that will compromise the safety of our students,” the superintendent said. “The reality is we can never let our guard down.”
St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron attended the presentation. Martirano praised the cooperation between Cameron’s agency and the schools. Cameron said that School Resource Officers (SROs) are not just a police presence but considered part of the instructional staff as mentors to the students.
Cameron, noting he has two children in the school system, said, “This is something I am very passionate about.” He said he, as other parents, appreciated the phone calls to his home the weekend following the shootings.
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