Glen Cove students walk out despite plans to stay in

District talks school safety with parents

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In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the Glen Cove school district has been working to quell parents’ concerns about the security of their children’s school buildings, while at the same time trying to determine how best to facilitate students’ participation in the national movement for school safety.

In the run-up to a nationwide walkout scheduled for Wednesday, the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting, district officials said they had to weigh the concerns of students looking for a way to participate that day, to honor the 17 lost lives, and their safety if they were allowed to leave the building at a time other than their regular dismissal.

A letter sent out by high school Principal Antonio Santana said that a student-led walkout was “not a viable option for Glen Cove High School,” but did not say why. The district instead planned a number of indoor activities meant to be “meaningful, healing, and empowering.”

“In our discussion with students,” the letter read, “it has been agreed that no student will leave the building as part of our tribute to the victims.” It went on to say that any student caught leaving the buildings without permission “will be subject to administrative action.”

However, in an apparent departure from the plan laid out in the letter, approximately 200 high school students walked out of their classrooms at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday and stood in silence by the entrance to the school for 17 minutes, as Santana read the names of those killed in the Parkland shooting.

One student, Glory Mayreis, told the Herald Gazette that she had been speaking to the principal and vice principal about allowing students to participate in the walkout. “Yesterday,” she said, “they finally agreed.”

She added, “Overall, it went very well, and we did have full support from the teachers and staff.”

District officials were unable to respond to the Herald Gazette’s inquiries about the change of plans before press time on Wednesday afternoon.

“Some kids had signs,” Mayreis said, “and I called my representatives and tried getting other kids to call as well, but I guess they were a bit scared to do that.” She added that several of her classmates had written letters to their legislators and to the White House.

The first rule of school security

At a public meeting in the middle school library on March 9, district administrators detailed for parents and community members the current state of security at the district’s buildings, and what they planned to do moving forward. Superintendent Dr. Maria Rianna said that one of the most important and effective security procedures was to avoid public discussions of those procedures. “Every time we discuss procedures, we’re making our buildings and our staff more vulnerable,” Rianna said. “We’ve worked with [the federal Department of] Homeland Security, our private consultants, our police, and they all say, don’t tell everybody what we have.”

The district’s architect, Michael Marks, discussed improvements to the buildings’ infrastructure, and specifically their points of entry. He displayed before-and-after blueprints of enhanced security at each building’s entrance.

When parents had the chance to ask questions, Jane Suozzi, who has two children in the district, asked about the entrance to the middle school, which has what she called a “double entrance,” giving visitors the option to bypass the security desk when they enter. She and several other parents also questioned how the district reacted to recent bomb threats. Suozzi said that her children were told they were evacuating, and then told to shelter in place. “You cannot simultaneously evacuate and shelter in place,” she said. “It’s one or the other.”

Faith Shapiro, who has one child at Landing Elementary and another at the middle school — and is married to a Glen Cove police officer — asked whether the district was considering giving the Glen Cove Police Department access to the district’s surveillance cameras. Rianna responded by noting the active-shooter drills the GCPD conducted in the school buildings over the summer, but did not answer Shapiro’s question.

Janet Black, of Glen Cove, who frequently speaks at board meetings later commented that sharing the school’s security camera feeds could give police more information than simply the layouts of the buildings. The district did not offer a response.