Governor announces plans to enhance NJ school security

| 29 Sep 2011 | 09:52

    Saying that recent school attacks have created a new sense of urgency, Gov. Jon S. Corzine last Thursday announced statewide school security initiatives, including guidelines for lockdowns and emergency evacuations and a proposal to require schools to run security drills. “We’ve all been saddened and shaken by the recent school attacks that have given a life-and-death urgency to the call for strengthening our protection for kids,” the governor said. “The plan we’re introducing today will take real steps toward making our schools truly secure.” The governor announced the new security measures during appearances at a Fort Lee high school and a middle school in Bordentown. The unveiling of the plans came a day after an 18-year-old high school student in Asbury Park was shot on a street corner a block from a middle school. Officials fearing reprisals closed the city’s schools until Monday. The student, Tylik Pugh, was on life support at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune to preserve his organs for transplant, police told the Asbury Park Press for Thursday’s newspapers. Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin on Thursday would only describe the boy’s injuries as extremely “life-threatening.” Hospital officials on Thursday said they did not have any information on Pugh. Immediately after the shooting, the city’s middle and high schools were partially locked down as a safety precaution. Authorities said they were concerned about possible retaliation for the shooting. Some of the measures included in the governor’s school safety initiative, called SAVE — for Strategic Actions for Violence Elimination — include working with the Legislature to create requirements for schools to run security drills and exercises. Under the plan, the state’s School Security Task Force would also work on creating guidelines for school lockdowns, emergency evacuations and how to deal with bomb threats. The state also would create a Web site designed to disseminate information about school safety to school officials and parents. The site would contain guidelines about how officials should react to a school shooting, including information on how to deal with the aftermath of a shooting.