By CRAIG FREILICH

St. Lawrence County schools are locking their doors, installing bulletproof glass and monitoring security cameras as concern for student safety has mounted in recent years.

Teachers and students are also practicing “lockdown drills” so that they will be ready in case an armed intruder appears on school grounds.

It’s not just fire drills anymore.

“In the last two years there has been a dramatic increase in security in the interest of student, faculty, staff and public safety compared to before,” Bill Gregory, superintendent of Canton Central School, said.

“We want to be prepared for any issue involving undesirable individuals on campus,” said Norwood-Norfolk Central School Superintendent Jamie Cruickshank.

In just the last two years, schools in St. Lawrence County have had to deal with students driving in the Colton-Pierrepont school parking lot showing a rifle, a lockdown in Potsdam after a report of a disruptive student with a BB pistol, an accused stalker at Norwood-Norfolk, and a variety of vague threats and anonymous bomb scares. Those incidents are all amplified by the drumbeat of incidents around the country involving people with a gun and a grudge that have resulted in death and injury to students, teachers and staff.

Doors are now locked once students arrive for the school day, and cameras scan doors, halls and parking lots. No visitor can just walk in unchallenged anymore, and students, teachers and other staff are practicing what to do if an armed intruder gets in.

“School violence” used to mean fights in the classroom and on school grounds, but the chilling phenomenon of armed students killing classmates has forced schools to adopt extra security measures such as holding visitors prior to entry until the purpose of the visit is determined, and developing checklists that teachers and administrators will use if a threat emerges.

“It could be somebody who’s angry who wants to see a teacher or a superintendent, all the way up to an armed intruder who wants to make entry,” Cruickshank said. “We don’t do these things for any one circumstance, no one incident. We’re trying to make ourselves a ‘hard target.’ We want to make them think twice.”

Sensors on doors, bulletproof glass in the windows through which clerks view visitors, security cameras inside and out, and regular reviews of policies and procedures are part of what Superintendent Pat Brady says Potsdam Central School has instituted over the last few years.

“The last two capital projects have concentrated efforts to increase security in buildings and on campus,” Brady said.

They have installed keyless building entry doors that are locked after students arrive and only those with the proper ID tags with electronic chips can open them. Visitors are “buzzed in through the first set of doors, meet with a clerk at a window, are signed in, and then buzzed in” through the inside doors, Brady said. They are issued ID tags they wear while in the building so everyone knows they have followed security procedures. “Staff know if someone has no ID tag, and they will ask what their business is,” Brady said.

As part of a safety plan all schools are required to hold emergency evacuation drills, and “lockdown drills” where no is permitted access and everyone stays where they are, taking precautions prescribed in a series of plans for different circumstances.

“For instance, if I get a call telling me that someone has escaped from police custody, we may lock down the school, especially if the person involved has some connection to the school, or if there’s a custody incident,” Gregory said. “That’s pretty rare though.”

Rare or not, schools have to anticipate as many potentially dangerous circumstances as they can and plan for them.

Schools now have safety committees that write those plans, review and revise them, and double-check equipment provisions.

Police involvement in planning, drills and actual action is part of the process.

“Norfolk Town Police and New York State troopers will visit the parking lot at different times of the day,” said Cruickshank. “I think it’s a positive for students to see the strong relationship with the police. And it leads to the impression of a ‘hard target.’

“We just had a drug sweep with the New York State Police and their drug-sniffing dogs. Luckily no drugs were found, but we want the negative element out of our school, and that’s one more way to do it,” Cruickshank said.

“We’re doing more lockdown and active shooter drills, simulating someone in school with a weapon. Then we’ll assess it and make adjustments if necessary,” Brady said.

He said all teachers have a safety plan including instructions for “lockdowns and other exercises. We will hold faculty meetings for discussions and training, based on a hazard.

“The safety committee continuously looks at safety plans and updates them, and organizes drills with local police and other emergency services,” he said.

“If the safety committee, which meets monthly, finds they need resources, we’ll talk to the finance committee.”

Brady also made note of their use of a Jefferson-Lewis BOCES safety officer “who advises us of changes to regulations, and works with us on fire inspections and chemical safety in labs – any safety concern. That officer is another resource.”