TRUMBULL SCHOOLS Few reps attend safety meeting

Only six of the 22 county school districts sent representatives to the School Safety Task Force meeting.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A task force formed to discuss safety issues in Trumbull County schools continues to attract representatives from only a handful of the county's 22 school districts.
At the fourth School Safety Task Force meeting Thursday, school administrators and police officers talked about the need to boost participation, as well as the general need for emergency planning and improved coordination among police agencies.
Only six school districts -- Maplewood, Champion, Liberty, Warren, Girard and Bloomfield-Mesopotamia -- sent representatives to the meeting.
Purpose: The task force is intended to be a source of guidance and information for school districts as they consider how to cope with disasters. A 1999 state law requires schools to create plans for dealing with emergencies such as fires, chemical spills or a violent attack.
Administrators at the meeting said their districts were at varying levels of preparedness, but a staff member from the Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency said she was most concerned about the districts which have not bothered to send anyone to the meeting.
"We don't know if they have a plan or no plan," said Rebecca Whitman, who is also a Hartford Township trustee. "The children are in danger if they don't have a plan."
Of the districts represented, several had recently completed plans and were getting ready to hold drills. Other districts sent representatives to seek help with theirs.
"Who is the expert around here?" asked Tom Harrison, principal of Liberty High School. "We are educators and this school safety thing is new to us."
Preparedness: In Howland, the planning process took three years, said Steve Lamantia, Howland Township police chief.
In Warren, it included a police inspection of school buildings with an eye toward site lines should it ever be necessary to deploy snipers. Maps of the schools are stored on computer, and a computer link allows police to instantly access attendance records to see if pupils are missing after an evacuation, said John Mandopolis, Warren police chief.
A major concern to law enforcement officers at the meeting was how communication among police departments would be handled if there were a violent incident in a county school.
If police departments are called to an emergency without following the proper procedure, it opens up a whole set of potential problems concerning liability if an officer is injured, Mandopolis said.
siff@vindy.com