Police Chief Frank Fowler said a safety assessment will be conducted in local schools as residents raised concerns about the Syracuse City School District during a forum on Tuesday.

Jaime Alicea, superintendent of the Syracuse City School District, said students, faculty, staff and parents have raised concerns about safety in schools following the violent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in mid-February that left 17 people dead. The Tuesday forum, billed as a safety forum, was held at Henninger High School.

The summit was the first of two safety events the school district will host in partnership with the Syracuse Police Department.

About 50 people attended the forum, and several residents addressed school district officials and law enforcement authorities.

One man said some school buildings in the district are so defunct that it’s impossible for teachers and administrators to safely supervise and protect students, and that the district needs to build new schools with modern layouts to help solve its safety problems.

Alicea said he has spoken with Fowler. The police chief has said he’s willing to meet with community members about safety issues so city officials can address their concerns, Fowler said.

Fowler stressed that the SPD has prioritized keeping students, staff and the community safe.

“We will terminate it, and terminate is the proper word choice for something like that, because that is our goal — to terminate the threat that we are dealing with at the time,” Fowler said.

Fowler said not knowing when a threatening event will happen is what the community is afraid of, and that it’s difficult to discern when an unsafe event may happen.

A safety assessment will take place in all SCSD schools to determine issues facing individual schools, Fowler said. Plans for other safety initiatives will be released in the near future, he added.

SCSD Board of Education commissioners said the district currently spends $6.7 million on security measures, which include hall monitors and sentries. Alicea said the district is working with elected officials to obtain more money for school security.

Thomas Ristoff, the SCSD’s director of safety and security, said there was a hall monitor program that has since transitioned into a fully trained security staff. Sentries are located throughout the schools, he said.

Commissioners said they are trying to make the schools feel safe, but not make them feel like prisons. The school district currently has several safety initiatives in place. City schools require photo identification for visitors and metal detectors.

Several people asked how, moving forward, the police expect to connect with students. Fowler said the district alongside police will continue the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to steer teens away from illegal drugs. The police chief also said SPD is looking for new opportunities to reach out to students.

“When it comes to issues that concern our youth, we need to listen to them and allow them to tell us what those issues are, and we make the adjustment,” Fowler said. “Our youth are very bright and they have a very strong and active voice, and we’d do ourselves a great disservice if we didn’t listen to them.”

Published on March 27, 2018 at 11:12 pm

Contact Bianca: bmoorman@syr.edu