How Are Montco and Bucks County Schools Protecting Students?

Teachers at Hatboro-Horsham are schooled in building barricades. More than 500 security cameras watch over students in Bensalem schools.

In Council Rock, a former member of the Secret Service is now in charge of school security measures. Armed police officers patrol some schools i Bucks and Montgomery counties.

The May shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, once again put the spotlight on school security measures. According to a federal report on school crime and safety, there were 93 school shootings in the U.S. in 2022. About half of those shootings resulted in deaths.

In mid-July, this news organization sent a list of questions to all public school districts in Bucks and eastern Montgomery counties, seeking information on school security measures including resource officers, staff training, visitor policies and money spent on security measures. Many of those questions were crafted following talks with the Center for Safe Schools, a nonprofit that performs assessments of school buildings.

Only a handful of districts responded. Those that didn’t either did not respond at all, or declined to answer, citing security concerns.

District’s plan to stay safe

Through district responses and emergency plans readily available on some school websites, this news organization found:

• Training of substitute teachers in school security varies. In Pennridge, for instance, substitute teachers are informed of security measures through folders in each school office.
• Not all schools have doors that lock from the inside. North Penn, for instance, said most classroom doors lock from the outside, while in Pennridge most classroom doors can be locked from the inside.
• In Bristol Township, the district can search a student’s locker without warning if officials fear a “threat to the health, welfare or safety of the school population,” and anyone with knowledge of a terroristic threat to immediately notify one of the building principals, according to publicly posted school policies.
• The Centennial School District uses the Raptor Visitor Management System to track those entering its six buildings. Raptor systems “instantly screen for sex offenders, custody issues, and banned visitors,” the company said.
• Most, but not all, of the schools have secure vestibules that are designed to prevent guests from entering a school directly without checking in with an employee.

Often, simple, low-cost measures can save lives, said Joey Melvin, director for the Center for Safe Schools. Among them, classrooms should have doors that lock from the inside, slowing armed intruders, said Melvin.

Schools should have a system that allows first responders to easily access buildings during emergencies and should provide floor plans to local police.

Metal detectors inside a school building are unlikely to prevent a shooter from gaining access to that building, Melvin said. Some districts invest millions on security cameras but don’t have workers to monitor those cameras, he added.

Districts often spend money on cameras without the staff to monitor the footage, said Dr. Scott Kuren, director of the office of school safety for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. A former school administrator in Philadelphia, Kuren said it was harder to get rural schools to take security concerns seriously.

“This is a problem for everyone, everywhere,” Kuren said.

Here’s a deeper look at security in local school districts.

Council Rock community forum spotlights security measures

Security was the No. 1 concern when the Council Rock School District surveyed the community in March, leading the district to host a public form on school safety and hire Don Mihalek, a former member of the Secret Service and Coast Guard Reserve, as security manager for the upcoming school year.

During the forum, information technology director Matt Frederickson briefed parents on the infrastructure designed to keep kids safe. All schools have single points of entry and vestibule entrances with admission controlled by a school secretary. The district also utilizes a background check system for visitors that scans driver’s licenses.

Every classroom has a number, Frederickson told parents. “If there’s ever an emergency in the building, we can give them a number and they know what part of the building to go to. Classrooms are set up in a way that they can be secured in an emergency, and we practice that,” Frederickson said.

In 2018, Council Rock began to train students on ALICE, an operation response strategy to survive critical incidents. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

Tim Keddie, assistant principal of Holland Middle School, said the strategies taught through ALICE are intended to increase survivability by empowering individuals to participate in their own survival.

“Know your environment. Stay committed to what response option you choose. And that’s how ALICE is going to help us save our students’ lives,” said Keddie. “As a district, we are more prepared for dealing with any type of critical incident now than we were before that 2018 rollout of ALICE.”

Bensalem schools’ emergency response plan

Bensalem School District did not respond to the questionnaire, but it details its security plan on its website.

The district’s Safe Schools emergency response plan includes more than 500 security cameras connected to a “live” monitoring station, and key fobs for township police, allowing officers 24-hour access to its nine schools.

The district said it has provided local police with floor plans for school buildings and conducts drills for building lockdowns, school bus evacuations, and weather emergencies.

The high school has an assigned school resource officer provided by Bensalem police, and a staffed security station. The Bensalem officer also supports security in other buildings, as needed.

Employees can use an app to instantly notify building personnel of a potential emergency, the district stated.

Each school has an access control system, requiring visitors to be “buzzed in” remotely and limiting access to one central location. A camera is used for identification purposes. Online visitor management systems are used for visitors at all schools to protect some 6,200 students, according to the district.

Lock-down and evacuation drills are conducted monthly, and first responders regularly review emergency procedures, the district said.

Which Bucks County schools have school resources officers?

In addition to Bensalem, Central Bucks, Quakertown Community, Pennsbury, Neshaminy, Council Rock, and Pennridge have police officers stationed in their schools. Other districts, including Morrisville and Bristol Township, have district-hired security guards.

Weeks after the Uvalde school massacre, Central Bucks revived a partnership with Warrington to restart its school resource officer program. Township police Officer Robert Bell will spend most of his time at Central Bucks High School South in Warrington, but will patrol other schools in the district as well.

In Pennridge, both armed and unarmed security patrol the district, officials said. Armed police are primarily stationed at the high school while unarmed security visit other buildings.

School officials say the officers not only keep students safe from outside threats, but also promote safety within school walls.

For instance, Middle Bucks Institute of Technology in Warwick, has an unarmed school security officer that serves as a member of the school’s threat assessment team, the crisis response team and the safety committee.

Lauren Doherty, supervisor of career and technical education at MBIT, wrote in the survey that the officer is responsible “for promoting a safe school climate.”

“In collaboration with administration, the school safety and security officer facilitates student conflict resolution, restorative sessions and implements behavioral interventions for at-risk students,” she said of the officer, who is paid through the school’s annual budget.

Technical schools prioritize student safety

Armed police and unarmed security officers also patrol the Bucks County Technical High School, and staff are trained in behavioral threat assessment, officials said. The technical school did not indicate the number of officers, though the staff directory lists four security employees.

Responding to an information request, the tech school said all its classroom doors lock from the inside to prevent access by an armed intruder. Local police also have master keys allowing “full access” in the event of emergencies. State grants have allowed for the purchase of security cameras, officials said.

Local police and regional tactical teams have trained in the tech school in Bristol Township, and police regularly stop in the building to review the building layout and meet the staff.

In their responses to this news organization’s questionnaire, both Middle Bucks and North Montco Technical Career Center in Lansdale said all or most classroom doors lock from the inside, and police have full access to their buildings in an emergency.

Recently, MBIT was notified it will receive $70,000 from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for school security measures and another $70,000 for mental health support. The school has plans to improve building infrastructure and add additional surveillance cameras with the funds.

MBIT’s Doherty wrote in the survey that construction of a secure entry vestibule is a safety measure the school would like implemented as “an added layer of safety between visitors and the school building.” There are additional plans to use the money for behavior and threat assessment case management software, trauma-informed training and practices and a security assessment through the Pennsylvania State Police.

Neither Eastern Center for Technology and the Arts in Willow Grove nor Upper Bucks Technical High School in Perkasie responded to the security survey.

From Safe2Say to safety drills, how other school districts keep students safe.

Over the summer, Falls police and the Bucks County South SWAT Team performed a “tactical exercise” in several Pennsbury School District schools, buses and vans.

“Pennsbury School District’s safety and security protocols and processes are constantly reviewed and practiced in collaboration with the Lower Makefield Township and Falls Township Police Departments,” district public relations supervisor Jennifer Neill said. “We are grateful for their partnership and support regarding the safety of our students, staff and community.”

The week before school began, the Quakertown Community School District held a table-top security exercise under the guidance of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. In the Neshaminy School District, teachers recently practiced security measures, including classroom barricades.

“The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We have extensive security protocols in place throughout the district and continually review them for best practices and improvement,” said Chris Stanley, community relations coordinator.

Stanley didn’t provide further information, but the district’s website includes information about its Critical Event Response Team (CERT). During an emergency, CERT is responsible for coordinating plans to deal with the situation and staff should adhere to its suggestions.

School security also is not a one-and-done issue. Districts said they routinely meet with local law enforcement and update security plans regularly.

Pennridge, for instance, meets with local law enforcement three times a year to discuss and update security measures, Superintendent David Bolton said. The district had plans to review its security drills in August.

Palisades School District is currently “reviewing its protocols, policies and procedures with regard to safety and security,” according to Director of Community Relations and Development Donna Holmes.

Some of these efforts include hiring a board-certified behavioral analyst and licensed crisis counselor, working with local police and first responders to review policies, procedures and conduct annual walkthroughs, and meeting with other school district representatives and law enforcement to discuss issues and trends among schools.

“We remain diligent in our focus and like other school districts, stay prepared in the event of a crisis. It is a stressful subject for everyone, including our students, families and staff, however, the events across the nation allow no other choice but to remain on alert and ready to respond,” Holmes said via email.

North Penn balances security, normalcy

When asked about security measures, administrators in the North Penn School District stressed the need for balance between safety and normalcy.

“School security is always a balance between what is available, what is feasible and what is acceptable to the school community,” said Chris Doerr, emergency management coordinator. “There are, of course, available security measures that may not be feasible for financial reasons or because they might negatively impact the culture or climate of the school community.

The district declined to answer some questions. Security and school police officers are employees of the district and work together at each school, officials said. Those officers also work at extra-academic activities.

Staff members at North Penn School District are trained in behavioral threat assessment. A few doors can lock from inside of the classroom, but most doors can only be locked from outside of the classroom at North Penn School District buildings. Local police officers have master keys and full access to each North Penn School District building.

Local officers also have access to building floor plans. In addition to understanding building floor plans, local police officers conduct regular foot patrols during school hours, which helps familiarize themselves with the layout of each building and school staff members.

“This is an ever-moving target and it’s the job of school administrators to ensure this balance is continuously evaluated and thoughtfully struck in the best interest of everyone involved,” Doerr said.

Who pays for school security?
On Aug. 17, state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, hosted a press conference and urged area schools to apply for $190 million in newly available state funds to improve school security and fund mental health programs for kids.

Administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, physical school safety grants can be used for metal detectors, surveillance cameras, visitor screening systems, to hire school police, and for training. In the 2022-23 school year, $95 million could be awarded, officials said.

Another round of state funding provides $95 million for school counselors and psychologists, violence prevention programs and training, for both students and teachers and will also be available for the coming school year.

Once a social studies teacher in the Bensalem, Santarsiero said he understands why administrators want to keep some information private. However, transparency is also needed, said the lawmaker from Lower Makefield.

“I know that many of these districts have had very public meetings to discuss these issues generally,” Santarsiero said. “Certainly, it’s important for communities to know not just how the money is being spent but also ― and more importantly ― to know what’s being done to protect the safety of their kids and the mental health of their children.