How well is Saratoga High prepared for disaster?

Newtown, Connecticut is, in many ways, a town undeniably similar to Saratoga. Both are home to rollicking parks and public works. Both suburbias boast a population of almost 30,000, which is largely made up of middle-class families. 

Of course, it was Newtown where gunman Adam Lanza massacred 20 children and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December. 

As the nation descends into a wide-spread political debate over gun control and school safety, Saratoga residents have also weighed in on how to make Saratoga safer. Bob Sutterfield, a Saratoga parent, said that he doesn’t know if the current school policy is enough to stop a shooter.

“Locks are easy to break through, and [a gunman] would have known that behind that locked door the victims were still vulnerable and unable to flee,” Sutterfield said. Sutterfield, a member of the National Rifle Association, said that he would be supportive of an a licensed staff member who is trained to react in the case of emergency on Saratoga’s campus, as well as in the local middle and elementary schools.

“‘Gun-free zones’ are attractive targets for cowardly mad men because they know they can wreak violent mayhem without resistance,” Sutterfield said, referencing the Federal-instituted gun-free zone extending 1,000 feet around every school. “The potential presence of armed resistance is an effective deterrent… Similarly, if a school district announces that they are permitting staff who have already qualified for license to carry … that is a deterrent.”

Citing the school resource officer, who is armed and in charge of eight campuses, Sutterfield said that he felt security at Saratoga’s schools should be stepped up.

“Would one officer be enough for eight banks, spread over a similar area?” Sutterfield asked. “If we value our children as much as our money, we'll provide a similar level of safeguards.

“The parents and school board in the Newtown school district decided last month to post armed guards at each of their schools.  I hope it doesn't take such a tragedy at Saratoga before we can make such a decision.”

 

The discourse over school safety

Assistant principal Kevin Mount said he understands how people reacting to recent school shootings might want to up security measures. However, he doesn’t believe that concealed carry on campus is the way to better security.

“I think this school is a super-safe place,” Mount said. “I’d hate to work someplace where they have gates and guards and things like that. I don’t know that that’s warranted here.”

The school, Mount said, has been working hard to re-evaluate and improve its safety procedures.

“We have been working with our staff, our campus supervisors,” Mount said. “We have them out on the perimeter of the school, [and] we have people walking around and keeping track.”

Mount said the school is trying to regulate the flow of campus visitors. Currently, campus visitors are required to register in the office, though walkers using the track and parents frequently violate this rule.

“Our neighbor folks are very, very addicted to walking on the track, and it’s a really hard culture to change,” Mount said. “What we are really making an effort to do now is to keep them from walking through the school during the school day. We are trying to monitor traffic around the campus a little more.”

Julianne Wey, a junior, believes the free flow of potential visitors is a bit unsettling.

“I don’t really think about my safety on Saratoga’s campus,” she said. “But now that I think about it, it would probably be really easy for a gunman to just walk in.”

Assistant principal Brian Safine acknowledged that it is impossible to account for every scenario.

“What [we] try to do is keep as many people safe as humanly possible, keeping kids in a safe area where they are barricaded, where they are quiet, where they are with an adult,” Safine said.

Safine added that the school already has well-trained staff and an effective safety plan in place if anything were to happen. Additionally, Safine said that students are already familiar with the Code Red drills, having participated in them since middle school.

“If there ever was something as awful as someone armed on campus, with the intent to do harm, I believe that students and teachers now know what to do to put themselves in the best possible position to be cared for,” Safine said. “I think for that reason, it is successful.”

However, Mount said that Code Reds have not been taken with as seriously as they should.

“I think there are some students who need to take it more seriously,” Mount said. “I think we have kids trying to get into rooms with their friends, things like that really get in the way of practicing something that could be effective. 

On the most recent Code Red last semester, students reported problems with the drill. Most students were aware of the “surprise” Code Red, despite efforts by administrators to keep the information under wraps. Several students reported that their classes had been loud and used cellular devices during the drill. 

Currently, Mount said that the school is in the process of doing a district-wide review of safety plans. Mount has met with district leadership and administration from Los Gatos High School. The question, Mount said, was whether students felt safe on the campus.

“Do you feel safe here?” he asked. “I say this kind of rhetorically, but I think [the answer to that question] is a real measure of how safe our kids feel at our school, and I think it’s important that you go to a school that you feel safe.”

Junior class president Anup Kar said he felt “most definitely” safe.

“Our staff, maintenance, janitors, supervisors, faculty all know exactly what they are doing and more,” Kar said. “In the rare case that there is ever a gunman on campus, which there might be, I would trust my life in the people that run the campus, because I know that they know exactly what they’re doing.”

However, Mount said that, while he felt the campus was safe, it is certainly not impenetrable.

“My feeling is, if a gunman really wants to hurt you and you have two or three armed guards on campus, I don’t think that will help anything,” Mount said. “Short of putting a gate and a fence around the whole school and locking it up, I don’t think you can protect the school from every contingency.”