The ongoing post-examination of Tuesday‘s (Feb. 27) intruder incident at Wilton High School moved Superintendent of Schools Kevin Smith to acknowledge that it could have been handled better.
“As we have been kind of reflecting on this, we didn’t get it right,” Smith told the Board of Education at Thursday night‘s (Feb. 29) special meeting.
Consequently, the district, in tandem with police and fire officials — and ultimately some outside safety auditors — will examine what it can do to improve safety protocol, response, and related communications.
On Tuesday morning at 10:14 a.m. a WHS student admitted an unauthorized teenager, who was not a student, into the building through a locked back door.
“Tuesday’s incident, when an unauthorized person entered the school building during the school day, has undermined a sense of safety for many, led some to question our responses to unusual circumstances, and revealed the need to reexamine some of our procedures,” Smith said.
“Shortly after the individual’s entry, school staff was notified of an unauthorized person in the building,” he said. “The police were also notified. There was a gap in time between when the student entered the building and when school administrators were notified. We followed safety protocols that included deploying school administrators, campus supervisors and Wilton police to locate both the unauthorized person and the individual who permitted the person into the building. At the time there was no report of an imminent threat and no report of a weapon.”
“One of the questions that’s been asked is, Why didn’t the school initiate a hold or a lockdown, initiate our standard-response protocol?” Smith said. “There’s not an easy answer to this question and this is one of the primary areas of analysis and investigation in procedural improvement.”
The intruder left the building 23 minutes later and was later located by police, who placed them in the custody of their parent.
Smith said undisclosed actions were being taken against the student who opened the door.
“And while no one was harmed during the incident, and while we don’t have any reason to believe there was intent to cause harm, we recognize the gravity of this event and are committed to taking steps to avoid this happening in the future,” Smith said.
“It’s clear in hindsight that initiating the standard response protocol needs to be immediate and that’s one of the changes we’ve made already,” he said.
BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca called the security breach “alarming and scary.”
“As a board chair and a mother of three, with three in three schools, this has been a very difficult week,” she said.
“Please know that the fears and concerns sent in from Tuesday are recognized, understood and shared, and are actively being addressed,” she said.
DeLuca said the investigative process is ongoing, with “changes to some processes and procedures” being put in place, with others being “researched, studied and refined.”
“We are at the beginning of the process, not the end,” she said. “We pledge to continue to communicate with the community and keep you informed of progress and changes, always in recognition that we can do better and will do better.”
Smith said the immediate next steps will include additional training for the entire staff. He also asked the public to avoid “posting incomplete or unconfirmed information on social media.”
At least one person on social media had posted — erroneously — that there was “a gunman in the high school.”
“As a school district, we take our commitment to ensuring the physical and emotional safety of every person in our schools very seriously,” Smith said.
“Know that we take these responsibilities very seriously and we recognize there is no margin for error,” he said. “We also recognize that any incident that involves the safety of one of our schools provides us with an opportunity to critically evaluate our procedures and identify ways to strengthen security procedures and communication.”
All school’s locked doors throughout the district with the intent of not permitting access from the outside should be alarmed. You can’t rely on people 100% of the time to say something if they see something. Or that all people will observe the rules. The doors are locked for a reason. Tamper proof alarms would have gone a long way to secure WHS with timely notification ON THE CAMPUS and beyond of a security breech… minimizing if not potentially eliminating the gross mishandling of this incident which fortunately didn’t prove life threatening.
There must not be a next time!!
Talk is cheap, and the post incident chatter is deafening. Bureaucracy is often it’s own worst enemy. That’s presently on full display.
A statement of sorrow or we could have / should have done better after the fact is no substitute for getting something like this done correctly in advance of an incident.
Investigation is now necessary but responsible proactive action from planning to execution is a reasonable ask by the Wilton community. Any community!