Security pros audit Cleveland schools

One official said metal
detectors and wands will be put in each building.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Five weeks after a high school student wounded two teachers and two classmates before killing himself, security experts are conducting an audit of safety at the city’s 110 school buildings.

Experts from the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based coalition of 66 urban school districts, will spend the next few days reviewing security at district buildings. The seven-member team includes police chiefs from the Los Angeles and Dallas school districts.

“The reports we generate are often quite critical,” said Bob Carlson, director of management services for the group.

He said the council has done about 150 peer reviews over the past decade on school districts’ operations and instruction methods.

“The school building ought to be a safe haven for children,” said Carlson, adding that there’s probably no 100 percent safe school in the country.

The audit is part of various measures the district has taken since Oct. 10, when SuccessTech Academy student Asa Coon wounded four people at the downtown school before killing himself. The 14-year-old had a juvenile court record and was upset about flunking a history class.

Cleveland Schools CEO Eugene Sanders has said metal detectors and wands will be added in each school building in the 50,000-student district. They should begin arriving by next week and staff members will be trained on their use, he said.

“We want to do it right,” Sanders said Wednesday.

Sanders promised the metal detectors two days after the shooting at a cost of $3 million to $4 million. The district had 10 metal detector units at the time of the shooting that rotated among schools.

“It’s the right step to take ... we’re moving forward from that point on,” Carlson said.

Sanders said the metal detectors are not the answer all by themselves, and the district also is implementing programs to help students and families identify behavioral problems and to intervene before students become violent.

The district also planned to hire 50 to 70 security guards to have one in each school, adding to the 148 security guards plus 20 city police officers assigned to schools.

The audit team will visit various school buildings and interview security staff members.

The district will pay for travel and accommodations for the seven members of the audit team. The rest of the cost will be covered by the Council of the Great City Schools, said Cleveland schools spokesman Ben Holbert.

Along with hardware security upgrades, Sanders also is calling for an improved support system for students, parents and staff, which he refers to as “human ware.”

The district passed out a draft plan Wednesday for such a support system that includes proposals for after-school programs in every neighborhood, a countywide system for reporting juvenile behavior problems and a crisis team to respond to threats.