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“We’re not 100 percent safe. No school is,” Danbury High principal Gary Bocaccio said during a presentation to parents Monday night. “But I believe it’s much safer for your kids to be here than to be at the mall or at the movies. … We take this very seriously.”
The students were issued new ID badges for second semester and encouraged to wear them, Bocaccio said. Doors are kept locked so teachers would not have to fumble for keys in an emergency -- they can just be slammed shut, he said. And a previously encouraged shortcut, in which students went outside from the science wing to the front entrance to avoid a busy staircase, has been banned.
Bocaccio outlined a review of new security procedures at the multi-building high school, which has more than 2,900 students on its campus.
A total of four police officers -- known as School Resource Officers -- are at the building daily. Two officers work inside the building and two are positioned outside. One is in the student parking lot off Beckerle Street and the other has been redeployed to the staff parking lot off East Gate Road and near the school’s main Clapboard Ridge Road entrance.
“Those police cars are highly visible,” Bocaccio said. “We want them to be a visible deterrent. And they are positioned strategically to see entrances and exits and to be seen.”
The school also employs six safety advocates, one of whom continues to monitor the front door check-in desk for visitors. That safety advocate, as well as other school officials, monitors the school's 19 security cameras -- 12 located inside the building and seven outside. The other safety advocates have been redeployed to roam in zones of the building.
Other improvements include locking all exterior doors; holding lockdown drills; improving the building’s public address system; adding two security cameras; adding a new counselor to the staff; and updating the entire security plan, including the school’s evacuation plan.
Bocaccio is studying ways to improve security in the school after hours and on weekends because the building is used by a large variety of community groups, including Adult Education and a community college, as well as the school's 56 sports teams, 26 clubs and other activities.
A swipe-card entrance system for staff has been proposed, he said. And officials are looking at ways to “isolate” parts of the building, such as the gym or auditorium, to keep guests from wandering when there for activities. Bocaccio said he would also consider adding panic buttons to the police department, more cameras, security gates at the main entrances, a security vestibule at the main entrance and an enclosure of an outdoor courtyard passage.
“Security is at the forefront of everything we do,” said Bocaccio. “I want my kids, my staff, myself to be safe. I think if you were to ask the kids, they would say they feel safe here.”
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