LISBON District tackles safety issues

Identifying students at risk for violence is the toughest challenge educators face, the superintendent said.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- At McKinley Elementary, there's a fence around the playground, new door locks and security cameras that weren't in place last March when a 13-year-old pupil pulled a loaded handgun on his teacher and sixth-grade classmates.
Superintendent Charles McShane says, however, that none of the improvements, nor advice from security experts or staff seminars can guarantee a similar episode, or something far worse, won't happen.
McShane, in his first year as Lisbon superintendent, said identifying pupils at risk for violence is the toughest challenge today's educators face.
What brings this up: Monday's deadly shootings of two students at Santana High School near San Diego, and the shooting Wednesday in which a 14-year-old girl wounded another in a crowded cafeteria at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High, a Roman Catholic school in Williamsport, Pa., are grim reminders that identifying at-risk pupils and intervening before they act is a tough task, McShane said.
"There have always been school bullies, and teachers and principals could step in," McShane said. "Fighters are easy to spot because they go around with a chip on their shoulder. This is much more difficult."
Local scare: McKinley Elementary pupils were just settling into their seats on the morning of March 23, 2000, when a boy pulled a loaded handgun from his pants and ordered his sixth-grade classmates and teacher Dan Kemats to the floor.
Alerted to the situation by a student in the hall, sixth-grade teacher Linda Robb recognized the boy as a pupil she had taught, and asked him if the gun was real. He popped the ammunition clip out of the gun and shoved it back in, as if to prove the gun was no toy.
Robb coaxed him into the hall to talk, then hugged him and asked him for the gun. He gave it to her, along with an ammunition clip from his pocket, and Robb walked the boy to the principal's office.
She later described the youth as a troubled, but good-hearted pupil who craved attention.
McShane said a caring teaching staff has promoted an atmosphere of healing at the elementary school. Last year's sixth-graders have moved on to the junior high, and there are no plans to mark the episode anniversary.
Here are concerns: Why did it happen and will it happen again are the questions pupils most often asked school counselors in the days after the episode. Those are questions McShane said even the experts are hard-pressed to answer.
"There has been a lot of healing," McShane said, "but we can't say it will never happen again."
Although school officials hope security measures such as cameras and periodic staff seminars will help deter school violence, an educators' best defense is in the daily, one-on-one interaction with students, McShane said.
Measures taken: The district subscribes to a safe-school hot line where parents and others can anonymously report threats.
School violence is discussed, as are self-esteem and anti-drug messages of Lisbon Police Department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, and a D.A.R.E. program will soon begin at the junior high, he said.
Teachers daily emphasize character-building concepts, such as self-respect and respect for others, McShane said. Pupils are recognized for acts of kindness and encouraged to be good citizens as well as to excel in the classroom, he said.
"You always have to review how you're doing things and look for ways to improve," he said. "You have to always be on alert for situations that can potentially lead to problems.
"Kids bring a lot of emotional baggage to school, and you never know what they're carrying," McShane said.
"They said the boy that shot the students in California had been at that school less than a year. They probably didn't know that much about him.
"The signs are obvious after the fact," McShane concluded.