VALHALLA, NY (May 13, 2023) — How to prevent and respond to school shootings and other emergencies was the focus of a Regional School Safety Symposium held on Friday at Westchester Community College.
The symposium, organized by the Westchester County Police Department’s Community Policing Unit, brought together about 175 officials from school districts, police departments and emergency services agencies throughout the Hudson Valley region.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Leigh Wall, the former superintendent of the Sante Fe Independent School District in Texas, which suffered a mass shooting in May 2018. A student at Sante Fe High School shot and killed two teachers and eight students, and wounded 13 others.
Wall shared her experiences and lessons learned from the tragedy, and how her district has worked to heal and improve its safety and security measures.
“It was a very powerful presentation,” said Sgt. Michael Hannon, who heads the Community Policing Unit. “She spoke from the heart and gave us a lot of valuable insights on how to prepare for and deal with such a horrific event.”
Other presentations focused on creating a more unified approach to school safety training, parent reunification, improving interoperable communications and leveraging technology to support safety and incident response.
“We want to foster a culture of collaboration and communication among all the stakeholders involved in school safety,” Hannon said. “We want to share best practices and learn from each other.”
The symposium was the latest in an ongoing series of forums that started in 2019 as part of a Westchester County Police program known as PACS (Police Allied With Communities and Schools). PACS aims to enhance school safety by providing training, resources and support to school districts and law enforcement agencies.
The symposium was sponsored by the Westchester County Chiefs of Police Association, Day Automation/Mutualink, Altaris Consulting Group, Critical Response Group, Layr, and Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES Regional Safety Services.
Hannon said he hopes to hold another symposium in the spring of 2022.
“We are very grateful to all the speakers, sponsors and attendees who made this symposium a success,” he said. “We are committed to making our schools safer for our students, staff and communities.”