Protecting the future

Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December of 2012, issues beyond gun control reform were debated and brought to the forefront of American politics. Citizens across the nation were blatantly alerted to the reality and necessity of protecting the children in our schools in order to prevent the murder of twenty more innocent school children.

Ideas have emerged across the board to increase security measures at both our public and private schools. Some extremists have proposed not only hiring additional security guards, but also arming teachers and administrators with guns and weapons in order to be more readily prepared to respond to an attack. A Tennessee senator has recently introduced a bill requiring the presence of an armed officer, teacher or staff member in every public school. Additional legislation has also been proposed elsewhere, such as in South Dakota, where a bill was passed in the House on January 29, 2013 to allow school districts to arm teachers and personnel with weapons.

More mild and easily-attainable ideas, however, call for increasing the number of lockdown drills performed in schools as well as the efficiency of such drills. While many schools routinely performed lockdown drills at least once a year prior to the Sandy Hook Massacre, state legislatures across the United States have since been stressing the necessity to regularly perform such security precautions. In order to simulate the anxiety and distress of an emergency, staff at a school in Illinois fired blanks throughout hallways during a lockdown drill last month. This unique incident was intended to familiarize the students and teachers with the terrifying sounds of gunshots in the event that an emergency should occur.

On a more local level, yeshivas across Long Island have been expanding and more firmly implementing their security measures. Great Neck’s North Shore Hebrew Academy High School has been employing lockdown and fire drills since its conception; however, security measures have been tightened since December 14, 2012. During an assembly just days after the Sandy Hook shooting, Dr. Daniel J. Vitow, Headmaster of NSHAHS, reiterated just how important lockdown drills are to the prestigious school and that they are by no means to be taken lightly. Dr. Vitow said, “One of the greatest responsibilities I have as Headmaster of North Shore Hebrew Academy High School is to provide a safe and secure environment for the hundreds of people who come through our facility each and every day. I take this responsibility with the utmost seriousness. From fingerprinting every employee to having strictly enforced security procedures and regularly scheduled practice drills, North Shore Hebrew Academy HS will always continue to review procedures and improve upon them. When things are quiet and normal, we tend to forget and let down our guard. We cannot do that. Under my watch, that will not be allowed to happen. My hope is that other Yeshivas will begin to see it this way as well. Together, we need to professionalize our style as we provide the best education under the most secure conditions for our students and faculty.”

Many other schools across the country are steadily following suit, striving to improve the rigor of their security measures in order to emphasize how serious the security of each and every child is and solace parents with the knowledge that their children will be safely returned to them at the end of every school day.