Hempfield Area parents question school's response to gun incident

Several Hempfield Area residents and student leaders shared their concerns at Monday’s school board meeting about the district’s response to an incident last week involving guns at the high school.

Resident Lindsay Stevens expressed frustration that much of the discussion about school security has been behind the scenes in executive sessions. She questioned whether the board was allowed to discuss security measures or the delayed high school renovation project outside of the public eye.

“I do know these things take time, and that change cannot happen all at once. However, in public, this board is not even discussing it,” Stevens said. “Please enlighten us publicly with your thoughts.”

District Superintendent Tammy Wolicki reported at the meeting that the board met three times in private since the gun incident to talk about safety.

“We have had a lot of reflection, and we’ve received feedback from the Pennsylvania State Police. We will certainly involve those individuals, along with our school police, in looking at what will be the most effective approach,” Wolicki said. “We are putting together a plan of action, and we will share what we can. Of course, with student safety, there’s always limitations as to what can be shared. What we can share, we will do that as soon as possible,” she said.

Board members plan to form a new security committee, Wolicki said.

Solicitor Krisha DiMascio said the meetings of this committee would be private if sensitive information is discussed, such as details on the exterior of school buildings or internal student discipline. The committee may have public meetings to discuss topics involving mental health and communication with parents, she said.

Student council member Shawn Murray said student leaders talked to their classmates last week and heard complaints about the prolonged amount of time taken up by the morning searches of students and their possessions.

Other students were concerned that the district does not have standalone physical metal detectors while spending money on other upgrades to portions of the school like the sports complex. Some worried that a student could bring a weapon in after the searches are completed, Murray said.

“Everyone was just kind of terrified,” he said. “What’s to say that someone isn’t going to bring another weapon or do another threat after the wanding is done? That was what they were worried for.”

Gun incident

On Oct. 2, school officials and police caught three boys with two loaded handguns — a .38-caliber and a .22-caliber — on a school bus and in a school bathroom, prompting a lockdown that lasted several hours. The students are being charged with felonies in juvenile court, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office.

High school students were searched with metal detectors before entering the building last week, and unannounced searches will continue.

School board member Tony Bompiani said the school board values safety above all.

“I don’t want anyone to get the impression that this board is not in favor of spending money for safety, no matter what it is,” he said. “Everyone is open to spending whatever they have to to make it safe. It’s just what is going to be the most benefit for the students to be safe.”

Board president Paul Ward said decisions involving security take time.

“In the past week, we haven’t looked to take action too quickly to just make a rash decision to spend money and bring equipment in,” he said. “There’s a process that is underway.”

Board member Mike Alfery said metal detectors are just one aspect of school security.

“We wouldn’t be doing our job if we let everyone know what we are doing,” he said. “In the future, there might be some delays and discomfort in the things that we are doing, but there are things in the works that you’re simply not going to know about, and it’s not just metal detectors. Just know that we are working.”

Alfery acknowledged the searches are an inconvenience but said they are the prudent thing to do.

“Moving forward, not everyone is always going to know what we are discussing, and we don’t want everyone in the building knowing exactly what could potentially catch someone doing something nefarious,” he said. “Hang in there. We apologize for the inconvenience, but at the end of the day, it’s worth it.”

Parents speak

Resident Paula Cinti said she hopes the district will consider carefully how they communicate with parents in a crisis. She offered to personally raise funds for the district in the case that the school needs money for safety in the future.

“I just want you to consider the process, when you’re sending out these notifications. I want you to be thinking about if you were the parent reading that notification, and how that’s going to affect them,” she said. “Is it too much information? Is it not enough information? It’s just something to think about.”

Resident and board candidate Erin Johns Speese pointed to crowded bus rides and larger class sizes as negatively impacting security at Hempfield. She said teachers and bus drivers are being asked to do too much, and students are not getting their needs met, leading to misbehavior down the line.

“You spent more than 18 months keeping books out of our schools, but you didn’t spend that much time thinking about how to keep guns out of them,” Speese said, referencing the prolonged debate at the district over a policy addressing appropriateness of reference books and other library materials.

“Our schools should be a place where metal detectors aren’t needed, because our kids are getting the attention they deserve, because teachers have manageable class sizes, because we have proactive mental health programs, because we’ve helped kids learn how to build a community where they protect one another,” she said. “We wouldn’t need to play defense now if we’d been playing offense all along,” she said.