LONGMEADOW – With the start of the school year for Longmeadow’s grades one through 12 on August 30 and Pre–K and Kindergarten on August 31, school safety was a topic discussed at the School Committee’s August 14 meeting. Longmeadow Police Chief John Stankiewicz presented his plan to the Committee to help ensure school safety.

Prior to Stankiewicz’s presentation, Superintendent Dr. Martin O’Shea offered a few words on the schools relationship with Stankiewicz, the District’s resource officer, Pam Chaplin and the Police Department as a whole.

“We’ve enjoyed a great relationship particularly with his [Stankiewicz’s] involvement and Chief Dearborn the fire chief’s involvement on the District Safety team and we’re always appreciative of the efforts that Longmeadow Police makes to help keep our safety initiatives in place and they advise us and direct us, and we’re always appreciative,” O’Shea commented. “Particularly helpful is our school resource officer, right now Pam Chaplin is the lone resource officer and she serves all of our schools, mainly spends most of her time at the High school but increasingly at the middle school."

Stankiewicz took the floor, explaining that over the last few years he believes the Police and School Departments have made “really great inroads” in providing and enhancing safety in the schools.

“Coupled with the working relationships not only with the School Department, but the Fire Department, the DPW [Department of Public Works] and we found out it’s this coordinated effort that of course enhances safety for all of the kids,” Stankiewicz said.

He continued, explaining that when O’Shea reinstituted the safety committee it benefitted the students, as the Police Department was able to work with school administrators and hear problems or concerns from each school. Some of these issues, he said, included building structure, layout, grounds and traffic concerns.

“By listening to them and working with them we were able to utilize our Traffic Safety Sargent to handle those issues as well,” he shared.

Stankiewicz stated that there has been an increased education among teachers and school administration and staff in regard to how to respond to certain situations and take control themselves instead of simply seeking shelter. He noted the staff is now able to assess the situations themselves and make decisions based on what they see.

An additional success for the schools, Stankiewicz said, was the success of Chaplin’s position of School Resource Officer (SRO). So successful, he noted, that she’s been migrating down to the elementary and middle schools more and more to provide them with service.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen 20 percent increase [of the SRO] in elementary and middle schools which we haven’t seen in the past. The issues we used to have 20 or 15 years ago in the High School has now migrated down to the middle school,” Stankiewicz said.

His providing of statistics and information on the SRO’s success led up to his sharing with the School Committee that he planned to hire an additional part–time SRO to work for the Schools.

“We had parents last year at Blueberry Hill asking after the Parkland shooting, they came and asked the Police Department what they were doing to ensure the safety of our students,” he explained. “I’m not suggesting it will happen here, but we are prepared to respond.”

Stankiewicz said that at the time that parents approached the Police Department at Blueberry Hill, they had officers doing patrols and being more visible at schools. He noted that this was not just for the safety of the school, the students, the staff and teachers, but it’s for parents’ security too.

He continued to tell the School Committee that the SRO he was planning on hiring would be part–time as he does not have the resources to hire a full–time employee. However, he did say he would see how the position evolved. He also shared that being a juvenile justice officer is now a specialty because officers do not handle juveniles the same way adults are handled.

“It’s becoming more and more complex than it ever has before. With that said, we need specialists,” Stankiewicz said.

O’Shea jumped back in at the end of Stankiewicz’s presentation, stating that he was excited about this possibility and he was interested and eager given all of the safety challenges happening.

School Committee Chair Beth Barron thanked Stankiewicz for his efforts and said he made an excellent case for a need to fill this position. Barron asked Stankiewicz how he envisioned the splitting of the roles between Chaplin and the new SRO. Stankiewicz said he envisions Chaplin to spend most of her time working at the High School and would be an advisor to the new resource officer as they worked at the elementary and middle schools.