When David Piperato took the reins as superintendent of the Pleasant Valley School District last year, he was pleased to see that the district had already taken school safety and student security seriously.

“The Pennsylvania State Police will do a safety audit for the district and let it know where they believe improvements are needed,” Piperato said. “When I arrived, the audit had already been done and we received the report in late summer or early fall.”

Piperato said the audit was favorable as to the security already in place in the district.

“The main issue is the entranceway to the high school,” Piperato said.

The high school main entrance already has what is referred to as a “captured vestibule,” which simply means that anyone entering during regular school hours has to enter into an enclosed area and then the secretary has to buzz them in.

All of the schools in the district have the captured vestibules, but the high school entrance does not have a direct line of sight. The secretary has to rely on the security camera and intercom system.

Piperato said changes are already in the works for the high school entrance.

“We will be hiring an architect to provide us with a design, and we will go from there,” he said.

The wish list for the high school includes a new entranceway that will have a separate waiting room and will rely on a security officer rather than the secretary to screen visitors to the building.

Security upgrades

The district has a about $100,000 budgeted for the upgrades, but Piperato admits that is a “stab in the dark” since there is no current design. The district recently secured a $10 million bond and the funds for the renovations will come from that.

Piperato would also like to see some of the older doors to the building be included in the security upgrade.

The district has a trained and armed security department. Armed security is stationed in every building during school hours and at least one additional officer shared in the district.

“As a matter of fact we feel very good about our security here and not just the physical plant, but our security personnel as well,” Piperato said. “Our security officers are present, visible and vigilant.”

Future improvements

A more extensive renovation to the high school is also on the horizon.

“The high school building is tired,” Piperato said. “We need to move forward and find a balance between the need for security and safety of students with the need to do a complete or partial renovation in the next few years.”

“We would like to have a state-of-the-art high school that is not just safe and secure, but that supports our education programs and goals.”

Another way the district is dealing with the security of students and staff is to continually promote open dialogue at every grade level.

“Staff talk among themselves, they share their ideas and concerns,” Piperato said. “Teachers are in a good position to notice changes. They sense when something might be happening at home or in school that are causing stress on their students.”

Piperato says that teachers are now mandatory reporters and are more sensitive to what is happening in their classrooms, and it is not just teachers but administrators and support staff as well. He refers to it as a collaborative effort that works.

“We headed off a number of situations in the past year, and that is a result of awareness and communication.”

“It really comes down to the students. Are they aware of their surroundings, reporting suspicious individuals, sharing rumors and info they see on social media,” Piperato said. “It really comes down to the kids.”

The superintendent also credits the use and importance of ID badges and uniforms in the high school and middle school as helping those who don’t belong to stand out.

Parent frustration

One major area where Piperato believes the district will never be able to completely satisfy parents and guardians is getting information out when there has been a security incident.

“A lot of information gets out on social media before we can even comment on it,” Piperato said. “We have to walk a fine line between keeping parents and students informed, protecting student identity and assisting local law enforcement with the investigation into the incident.”

Piperato says the district has a protocol that it follows when there is a threat.

“We need to get out in front of it and notify parents,” he said. “But we need to investigate first. We need to gather the facts, and sometimes, even when the administration knows some things, we can’t share the information because of the ongoing investigations.

“Parents need to know that as we get the information, as long as it doesn’t lead to the identity of the culprit, usually a child in these cases, we will release the information when we are able,” he said. “We know that the social media rumor mill leaks information, and that causes consternation for parents.”

Mental health

Piperato believes that one area that desperately needs to be improved upon in all districts, not just Pleasant Valley, is the issue of mental health of school students.

“We know that the numbers of students and families with mental health issues are increasing dramatically, and these stressors are being brought into the schools,” he said. “The job of the school counselor has changed dramatically as well, and as the issues grow, the number of counselors has not.”

Piperato believes more mental health support is needed in all school levels and that there also needs to be a better way of educating parents.

“Sometimes teachers will identify a problem, and when it is addressed with the parents, they just don’t see it and it can be a ‘no-win’ situation.”

Piperato says that they are educators, not social workers or mental health professionals. He added that he would like to see more mental health assistance in the schools so that children with mental health issues can still enter the building every day and get the education and support that they need.