By MADDY VITALE
The Ocean City district has a total of about 1,200 students at the high school, intermediate school and primary school.
All of the schools are different based on the varied ages of the students, but they all have one thing in common: a major school safety strategy and a comprehensive plan if something were to happen.
Police Chief Jay Prettyman addressed parents’ questions and discussed in an informal and conversational presentation Thursday at the high school ways that the police department works to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
The focus of the talk as part of the district’s “Parent Academy” was on school safety. Mainly, the talk was to go over past practices, building security updates and the vision for school safety under the current leadership.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Matthew Friedman said a few words before giving the floor to Prettyman.
“We really have experts on school safety — what we have had in place and what we will have moving forward,” Friedman said.
School Resource Officer Jen Elias, Lt. Pat Walsh and members of the Community Policing Unit Officers Mike Hinsley, Jack Davis, Kayla Ricci and Mike Gray were also in attendance.
The officers operate as a group, rather than having one officer at a school, there will be multiple officers if an incident arises, he emphasized.
“A lot of people ask about armed guards,” Prettyman said, noting that it is a good idea for some school districts, but the program in place in Ocean City is working.
There are school drills, lockdown drills and police department drills, which are done after hours on school grounds.
Each of the schools is different. The primary school students are easiest to contain, the intermediate school students begin to ride their bikes to school and some of the high school students drive to school or leave early on their bikes, Pretty said.
The groups of students are all different to control when it comes to safety. Making it as safe as possible is the goal, Prettyman emphasized.
“When I met with Dr. Friedman a week ago, we discussed the weakest point is human behavior,” he noted.
Prettyman spoke about school security drills. If, for instance, a child is out in the hallway and a classroom is already locked in, the teacher or substitute has to decide if he or she can quickly bring the child in the room.
Prettyman, who was a young police officer during the Columbine school shooting in Colorado in 1999, said he is well-schooled in the area of what to look for and what to do in case of school threats or emergencies.
In each school, there are multiple emergency response packets and keys to all of the classrooms. Every teacher or substitute has been afforded all of the necessary information on what to do if an emergency arises.
“Our primary goal is to get everyone hunkered down and we will get to you,” Prettyman said.
The chief believes in mutual aid because it is a “force multiplier.”
In addition, the department has at the ready two bomb detection K-9s and a K-9 for narcotics.
“I think you guys are doing a great job,” Ashley Callahan, who is a substitute teacher in the district, told the police officers.
Some members of the audience asked about having a school resource officer on duty after school when games are played in the gym because of people from the public just walking in.
Prettyman said that is a “gray area” because it is a “mixed use” environment, when school is over at the end of the day and sporting events are in the gym.
He noted that it was a “good point” and added that there has been discussion in the past about having an officer assigned to the school later, from noon to 8 p.m. for example.
Elias is the only school resource officer in the district. She is assigned to the high school.
Prettyman said that the police department does not have officers stationed at the other schools full time because of the close proximity of the schools to each other and the department can be there quickly.
Officers are present for drop-off and dismissals at the start of school in the morning and at the end of the day.
Among the concerns for drop-off and dismissal were bus speeds. One parent said that the buses should slow down and that they are traveling 45 mph in 25-mph speed zones.
The chief noted that the bus speeds will be strictly enforced.
One parent asked if the district was giving any consideration to adding metal detectors.
Prettyman said that it is something that has been discussed. He did say, however, that vape detection devices were going to be installed in the future.
For information about the Ocean City school district visit oceancityschools.org.
