Resident explores, critiques security

Officials said security is in place, but no system is 100 percent guaranteed.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Lenox Avenue woman, claiming she is concerned about security in the Youngstown City Schools, said she walked all through Bunn Elementary School on Election Day and was never challenged.
Lori Simkin, who worked in the building's cafeteria last year but isn't employed there now, said she lives just down the street from the school and went into the building about 2 p.m. Tuesday to vote.
Intrusion
After voting in the gymnasium/cafeteria, Simkin said she walked out through the kitchen, down some steps and then spoke with some friends who are employed at the school.
No one challenged her presence, she said.
Simkin said she is friends with Jennifer Lewis of Indianola Avenue who recently publicly raised concerns about building security on election day.
However, Simkin said the decision to test the security at Bunn was her own.
"We are concerned about the kids," she said, expressing fear that, if she could walk anywhere in the building, so could someone intent on doing harm to a child.
Simkin said that, while she was in the building, she passed a desk where someone had left a few dollars lying in plain sight. Simkin said she picked up the cash and walked home where she put the money in an envelope and then returned to the school to return the money.
She said she walked in through the same door and again wasn't confronted until she found a cafeteria worker and tried to give back the money. It wasn't until then that school employees realized there was a security problem, she said.
Officials' perspective
Ted Terlesky, the district's chief of security, said he was informed later of the intrusion.
The district strives for security perfection, but there is no way a 100 percent guarantee of safety can be provided, he said.
The district has had a security system in place since 1969 and employs 13 off-duty Youngstown police officers and has a contract for five Youngstown police vehicles every day to provide that security, Terlesky said.
Dr. Wendy Webb, school superintendent, told The Vindicator last week that the district had adequate security measures in place and that no additional measures were planned for Election Day.
She also said that no one can guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen despite the security system.
Ten of the district's buildings were used as polling locations.
Webb acknowledged that some parents had raised the question of security at parent advisory meetings.
Election Day is probably one of the safest days in the schools, Webb said, pointing out that there are poll workers and parents on the premises that day, adding to the number of watchful eyes covering the doors.
gwin@vindy.com