Hamilton Southeastern Schools holds school safety forum
FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — After the school shooting in Noblesville, neighboring school district, Hamilton Southeastern, put together a community forum on school safety.
With Noblesville fresh in their minds, parents got a chance to meet face-to-face with police and school leaders to go over some of their concerns when it comes to school safety.
While the forum was planned back in March, school officials say the timing couldn’t have been more pertinent.
Hundreds of parents packed into the auditorium at Hamilton Southeastern High School Wednesday night.
It was all a part of a school safety forum called Safe City, Safe Schools. It brought together nearly 500 parents, Fishers police, city leaders and HSE School Officials.
“One of the questions is always ‘what are you doing to prevent?’,” said HSE Superintendent Dr. Allen Bourff. “‘What are you doing that we may not be aware of?’ ‘Are you contemplating putting more school resource officers in buildings?’ ‘Are you looking at metal detectors?’ ‘Are you looking at arming teachers?’”
Those questions and others were raised Wednesday as parents submitted questions to a six-person panel made up of police and school officials.
“I do want metal detectors, I have safety concerns on that,” parent, Gurinder Singh Khalsa said. “I don’t like the idea of teachers having guns all the time.”
Fisher’s police also went over the emergency plan that the schools practice. It’s called A.L.I.C.E. which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. The plan was used in the Noblesville shooting Friday.
It’s this transparency that both sides hope will create more open lines of communication.
“I got a number of phone calls, emails, texts, tweets to me about parents that are very concerned and we want to make sure we are being as transparent as possible about the things that we are putting in place to ensure their kids are safe,” Fishers Mayor, Scott Fadness said.
The district says it plans to add three or four more school resource officers by next fall. Officials did not say where those officers will be stationed.