Three armed security personnel will be Palmerton Area School District’s latest step toward a more secure school environment.

The district’s school board unanimously approved an agreement with KRE Security LLC on Tuesday night in the amount of $155,280, which will be prorated for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

“They will have routine safety and security duties,” Palmerton’s acting Superintendent Dr. Al Lonoconus said. “We want them to become a presence in the schools, be in the hallways working alongside our regular school personnel.”

Palmerton, for some time, has discussed the pros and cons of having officers in the schools and whether they would work directly for the district or be contracted through a company such as KRE Security.

Lonoconus said the guards would have a wide variety of duties, including helping with any altercations within the buildings, monitoring visitors, and working with local law enforcement to handle any situations that may arise.

“We told them the things we expect to see out of them,” Lonoconus said. “If we’re not seeing those things, they won’t be in our buildings. There will be coordination with Palmerton Borough Police and the state police.

“Before they step foot in our buildings, they will know their roles and their limitations and how we want them interacting with local police.”

The security guards will be certified to carry a firearm, but they will not have the arresting powers of a regular law enforcement officer.

“They can detain and hold, but won’t have arresting powers,” Lonoconus said.

Guards will rotate between Palmerton’s buildings, especially within the first month to get a sense of all the layouts and individual school procedures.

District officials also hope they develop a rapport with students, especially the younger ones, so they know the guards are there to help them.

Adding another layer of security is also expected to take burden off regular school personnel who currently handle different issues.

“If a fight breaks out, we don’t want to be putting teachers in harm’s way,” Lonoconus said.

“I’ve been at a school where a teacher actually got beat up pretty bad by a student because such a security person was not in place. Their training will include restraint and de-escalation methods to handle that exact scenario.”

Lonoconus said he plans to talk to other districts who use KRE personnel to staff extracurricular activities, such as sporting events.

Recent Threats

The agreement with KRE comes at a key time for Palmerton on the heels of a bomb threat last week at the high school.

Lonoconus said the staff handled the incident well in conjunction with state police. The treat, according to police, was deemed noncredible.

“We do not take these lightly,” Lonoconus said.

“We’re still investigating it and we do have some information and video so we are narrowing things down. If we have enough to prosecute, I will be advising the board to prosecute any individual to the fullest extent of the law.”

He again asked parents to stress to students the severity of such a threat, which is a federal offense as an act of terrorism.

“At one of my former stops, we did have a young lady convicted of that and she spent time in prison,” he said.

In addition to the threat, there were anti-Semitic statements found on some of the bathroom walls, which is also under investigation.

“We’re not going to stand for it,” Lonoconus said.

“Unfortunately in some cases it is stuff kids see on television and they think it’s kind of funny. They don’t know the real true meaning behind a lot of it. We’ve asked some of the teachers who have a little more influence in that area to talk to their students about that type of thing.”