School safety and student support of Florida victims in Warren County 

Letasha Thompson addresses school safety during public participation portion of March 7 Warren County School Board meeting. Photos/Roger Bianchini

FRONT ROYAL – At its March 7 monthly meeting the Warren County School Board, administrative staff and several parents discussed the hot-button topic of school safety three weeks after the Parkland, Florida semi-automatic rifle shooting that left 17 students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School dead and 17 more wounded.  The Valentine’s Day school massacre in Florida and the aggressive activism launched by student survivors of Stoneman Douglas High School has intensified the gun law debate nationally. 

One week later on Wednesday, March 14, exactly a month after the Parkland, Florida school shooting, 242 students left four county public schools in support of a national student remembrance of the Parkland victims and a call for stricter gun control laws.  The demonstrations were slated to begin across the nation at 10 a.m. in each time zone and last for 17 minutes, one minute for each Douglas High victim. 

School Superintendent Greg Drescher said the head count of participating students was 120 at Skyline Middle School, 80 at Skyline High School, 30 at Warren County High School, and 12 at Warren County Middle School.  He said the school system neither discouraged nor encouraged the event, adding that students who did participate will face no disciplinary consequence for their action.  The two high schools have approximate student populations of 800 each; the middle schools about 600 students each. 

“Some people were offended by it, but for me it was more of a respect thing with 17 minutes of silence for the 17 victims in Florida,” Skyline High sophomore Sophia Conrow said of her participation. 

“We want to give students an opportunity to express their opinions and for some it was really, really important to participate,” Drescher observed, adding, “But we want it understood that education is our primary function, so it’s not something we would expect to occur every week.  But we’ll continue a dialogue so our kids understand our perspective that disrupting class may not be the best way – and I think the kids understand that.” 

A week earlier at the school board meeting, several parents addressed the issue of what Warren County Public Schools are doing to address the ongoing public danger of mass shootings that have all too frequently targeted schools.  The discussion spanned the meeting from public participation at its outset to an informal discussion after the meeting’s official adjournment. 

The latter conversation came when several people unfamiliar with the meeting format rose to ask if they might speak to the matter following the adjournment.  Drescher invited the parents forward to continue discussion of the topic. 

Letasha Thompson was first to address the issue during the public participation segment near the meeting’s outset.  Among her comments Thompson suggested metal detectors be placed on school doors throughout the system as one immediately-available safety implementation.  During the later, post-meeting informal discussion Chris and Melissa Cubbage and Mike Mayer added their thoughts.   

Mayer, who said he had a daughter at Ressie Jeffries Elementary, made an interesting suggestion on a middle ground this reporter had yet to hear on the idea of arming teachers.  That idea was arming some school staff with what he called “bear” or “wasp spray” – essentially a mace designed to shoot a tight stream as far as 30 feet, and which he observed would blind and drop a human to his knees at that distance. 

An ongoing concern appeared to be that locking classroom doors and telling students “to get down and hide” may not be enough.  And Drescher’s earlier remarks on school safety during his Superintendent’s Report indicated school administrators may be on the same page. 

Above, Chris and Melissa Cubbage discuss school safety with school board and staff following the meeting’s official adjournment; below, Mike Mayer raises potential of non-lethal arming of school staffs with ‘bear spray’.

Drescher opened his report on school safety by observing, “The recent school shooting in Florida sparked a series of threats across our nation” before launching into a summary of threats dealt with by Warren County Public Schools on February 21-22, a week after the Parkland school shooting.  During his report Drescher noted that school officials and law enforcement have already met several times in recent weeks to review the system’s emergency procedures and see what kind of improvements can be made.  He also pointed to an increased law enforcement presence “at all our schools” including an added sheriff’s deputy’s presence during school lunch hours. 

Drescher added that he believed procedures in place “were good” and would be implemented if necessary by “good people” but did add that he would be making “further recommendations” in the near future. 

Of the threats to Warren County Public Schools previously reported on by Royal Examiner, Drescher noted that it had eventually been determined the February 21st social media post against “SHS” that led to searches of everyone entering Skyline High School the following day had originated in Ohio and was not targeting Warren County’s SHS. – “I imagine that SHS’s across the country dealt with this,” Drescher said. 

The system also dealt with a threat made against Warren County High School and two directed at Warren County Middle School, the latter situation leading to the evacuation of the middle school the morning of February 22. 

“Our crisis plans were initiated and the evacuation, subsequent searches all went well. I want to thank our students for handling it so well; our parents for coming through a scary situation; our schools’ staff that did a fantastic job at all levels; and all the law enforcement that supported us,” Drescher said. 

“In the cases of all these threats we know who did them. In no case was the threat a real threat.  I would define them all as individuals saying very foolish things.  All have been turned over to law enforcement and all have gone through our disciplinary procedures; and we have followed our threat assessment and mental health assessments as appropriate,” the school superintendent reported. 

And so it goes locally and nationally in the eighteenth year of the 21st Century.