School metal detectors ‘not realistic’

The South Country Central School District held a board of education meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16, where they addressed recent police activity at Bellport High School the prior week.

Specifically, Suffolk County Police Department officers were called to the high school on Thursday, Sept. 10 and Friday, Sept. 11, with one intervention resulting in the arrest of a minor.

“This school has suffered under, what I believe to be, the worst fiscal mismanagement in New York State public school history. Didn’t just happen over the last couple of years but over the last decade. Decisions were made that, quite frankly, boggle my mind and defy logic… Now, students come to school every day and have the choice to participate in their education. Unfortunately, we had a couple of incidents, and I’m not going to comment much. If you want to comment on Facebook, former employees, longtime employees should know better. These are children. They make mistakes. Our job is to try and fix them,” said interim superintendent John Dolan.

Dolan said he had met with high school officials and staff earlier the day of the meeting and had been at the high school on Sept. 11 for one of the incidents where police were dispatched, referring to the event as “particularly inappropriate.”

“We’re not looking to make threats. But we will make promises. If you’re disruptive or your actions harm others, we can’t have you. And the punishments will be swift,” said Dolan. “The people that go on TV or on Facebook, I’d much rather they come to my office and see me face to face.”

President Christopher Ross also addressed the proliferation of false information via social media and the board and district’s intention to provide clarity for the concerns.

“There have been rumors and things started, whether they happened in other districts and were transposed to ours. When we asked questions, it turned out some of things weren’t what they said. But some people suggested that things had occurred that weren’t reported to us. From that standpoint, whoever you are, we can’t help you if we don’t know about it,” said Ross.

Multiple times, the board and Dolan made reference to trustees being asked to address district issues in public places like “grocery stores” or “bagel stores,” and emphasized that this was not the proper channel of contact and that issues would be better addressed through those lines of communication.

The first public speaker was Cheryl Moot, who thanked superintendent Dolan for his statement, characterizing it as “heartfelt” and “comforting.”

“Considering all the bad publicity we’ve had, are you privileged enough to tell us how many people applied?” Moot asked in reference to the ongoing superintendent search for which she had served as a panel advisor previously.

Ross said that with the district being referred to as a “sinking ship” and “damaged goods,” that the number of applicants would be affected. Eight individuals had applied for the superintendent position, with four having the credentials to make it to the interview phase. From the interview phase, three applicants were given a topic and given 20 minutes to prepare a presentation that would include a 40-minute question-and-answer session.

Two remain after that step and would be presented to stakeholders under the guidance of Eastern Suffolk BOCES and chief operating officer Dave Wicks, who have offered to aid South Country in their superintendent search gratis, whereas previously a private company would be hired to conduct the search.

“I think that [with] eight people throwing their hat in the ring, that says something for people’s hopes for the district,” said Moot.

Amy Prego, a grandmother to multiple students in the district, was the second speaker.

“Having a real estate license, I’ve always heard this was a tough district and one of my biggest concerns is, and you hear a lot of rumors, so you [can] correct me if I’m wrong, but because of the budget and where we are financially, that the security has been cut back tremendously,” said Prego.

Paramount to Prego’s concern with possible inadequate security was that older students were not being monitored or “checked on” by the perceived diminished security staff, which in turn allowed for disruptive behavior.

“So what are we doing to get metal detectors, or is that impossible because of where we stand financially?” Prego asked the board.

Ross said that following a gun incident in William Floyd School District, that metal detectors were installed withing 72 hours, but at the significant cost of $1 million.

“So a million dollars is not something we can afford,” said Ross. “It’s not realistic for us to say we’re going to have metal detectors.”

“With regards to the security, dollars have been cut back, so we’ve lost bodies,” said Ross. Last year there were 26 security guards and this school year had 22.

“They’ve been reallocated or they are trying to adjust where they are and collectively go about that. There are—as police have told us—we’re not different than a lot of other districts with incidents among students in general,” said Ross.

Prego began to describe catastrophic school violence like mass shootings and students feeling unsafe hearing about such events on media outlets.

“Coming from a whole family of journalists… the role of the press and media is important, but they also need to sell papers and sell airtime… I see a tremendous amount of good in the [school] buildings. Now what we always tell children and they do have, especially when they get a little older, the younger ones tend to come and tell us. They tell their teacher in elementary school, middle school they change. Remember, we’re dealing with adolescents. I’ve seen dedicated teachers and guidance counselors, everything down to cafeteria folks, everyone has eyes on them and are role models… When you’re as privileged as I am to have walked down halls for years, there’s an overwhelming amount of good,” said Dolan.