Questions about student safety were raised at Palmerton Area School District’s board meeting Tuesday night after residents learned the high school’s security system had reportedly been down for several months.

Resident Richard Banko said he recently found out about the issue while in town.

“I was at NAPA picking up parts, and a guy who works for the school told me, ‘Rich, we just got our security system fixed,’ ” Banko said. “He told me the high school’s security system was down for four or five months. Is that true? Can anybody answer that?”

Board Solicitor Shawn Lochinger reminded the audience that board members and district staff were permitted to respond if they chose, but were not required to do so.

District officials responded that the security alarm system is not required and that students were never in danger.

“At no time were any students in danger or in an unsafe condition,” Assistant Superintendent for Academic Programs and Technology Dan Heaney said. “The alarm isn’t even armed during the school day. Our doors were still locked, and our surveillance cameras were operating. There was no unsafe condition.”

Board member Erin Snyder said the district has motion cameras in operation even if the alarm system is down.

“The system should send alerts if there’s motion after hours, if there’s movement at a certain camera,” she said. “That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

Danielle Paules, who said later she was speaking as a taxpayer and not in her capacity as a board member, said she had heard similar concerns earlier in the year.

“I heard over the summer that the security system was down for months,” she said. “If I had a student going here, I wouldn’t want them in a building without a working security system. That’s not right.”

Paules said the district’s elementary schools had stronger safety protocols in place.

“At the elementary schools, there are three barricades before anyone can get in, two locked doors and security buttons,” she said. “Why wasn’t this issue addressed sooner?”

Paules also questioned why the problem wasn’t handled following a summer storm.

“When there was a thunderstorm over the summer, why wasn’t it turned in to the insurance company? Why wasn’t the system repaired then?” she asked.

Paules’ husband Earl, who is Palmerton’s school board president, was not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting. In an interview after the meeting, he said he was told not to come by an attorney within Sweet, Stevens, Katz and Williams LLP — the district’s law firm.

“They knew I was going to bring this up and they didn’t want me there,” Earl Paules said. “It’s not OK for the high school alarm system to not be working for the last several months and it still doesn’t work. The parents have the right to know their kids are not safe.”

Following Danielle Paules’ comments Tuesday, Superintendent Angela Friebolin said the line of questioning was an attempt to come after her.

“This is an attempt to indict me and you’re going after Dan (Heaney) to try to make me look bad,” Friebolin said.

Director Sherry Haas said the board was only recently made aware of the situation.

“We just got an email about it,” she said. “If the system was down all summer, we should have known earlier.”