Students, Parents Will See Police Officers at All Elmhurst District 205 Schools
Chief Michael Ruth hopes the increased police presence will reduce parents' anxiety in light of Friday's school shooting in Connecticut.
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As mourners in Connecticut hold vigils and plan the funerals for the 20 children and six adults gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, school children in here in Elmhurst will be getting some added protection from Police Chief Michael Ruth and the Elmhurst Police Department.
Uniformed police officers greeted parents and children at all Elmhurst public schools Monday.
Ruth said Friday that although the department had not received any calls from schools or parents, he wanted to create a visible police presence to "help calm potential concerns and reduce possible anxiety" in light of Friday's school shooting.
"Elmhurst police officers have been directed to increase visible patrols to all of our elementary and secondary schools within the city," he said. "Officers have also been directed to initiate foot patrols to increase the level of visibility and interactive communication."
He did not say how long the additional officers would be dispatched to the schools.
He reminded residents to immediately report any suspicious people or activity to the Elmhurst police by calling 911.
In a statement last week, District 205 Superintendent David Pruneau said, "Although our buildings are always locked during the school day, as soon as we learned of the shooting, I sent word to our principals to go into “high alert” mode, related to building security."
Robin Belleau
8:48 am on Monday, December 17, 2012
District 205 needs to enforce their "locked schools" policy. It is very easy to go in and out un-detected. My husband and I have noth experienced this, and I have had reports from several other schools in the district. AND duirng the "high alert" mode a mom was let in and not asked for i.d..
John McDonough
9:39 am on Monday, December 17, 2012
Robin, when something like this happens, please bring it to the attention of the principal as soon as possible. It is only through receiving this type of information can the District improve our security measures for our kids. Thanks.
Renee Gough
9:43 am on Monday, December 17, 2012
Robin, please consider writing to the school about this. They may not know this happened and can deal with it appropriately.
Carol Fancher
11:27 am on Monday, December 17, 2012
If someone wants to get in they will find a way. Please keep our schools on high alert always! This all is very disturbing.
Tom Smalley
1:20 pm on Monday, December 17, 2012
seams one answer to this is as with car ins. why not have gun ins. $100 month per gun . if its semi auto its $200 month .......if one wants 10 guns it gets pretty expensive. now like car ins .....if it has anti lock brakes you get a discount .....well if you lock them up in a safe you get a discount , if they say we have 275 million guns imagine the trust fund that could be raised to help with ,gun safety classes,or a fund to pay for guards? ........make me sick as why some teacher unions allow tanning and plastic surgary benifits but no budget for armed responders
Haakon Dubstep
2:27 pm on Monday, December 17, 2012
tom that is not a good idea. giving them more money is not going to help anything as the last 20+ years have demonstrated. how about we allow concealed carry in one of the most crime ridden cities in the country so criminals WITH ILLEGAL GUNS can be stopped.yes they easily can get them, there are burglaries that have gone COMPLETELY UNINVESTIGATED IN ELMHURST IN WHICH MULTIPLE GUNS WERE STOLEN THROUGH UNLAWFUL ENTRANCE OF A HOME. THE POLICE LITERALLY SAID WE CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT AND NEVER RETURNED
Karen Chadra
9:16 pm on Monday, December 17, 2012
Hi all - Here is a new story on school security in Elmhurst: http://elmhurst.patch.com/articles/police-presence-will-continue-at-schools-all-week-with-special-procedures-at-york