If an intruder were to break into the school, each teacher would lock his or her classroom door and slip the paper into the hallway, signaling that the students are not in danger.

Law enforcement officials would then know which classrooms or hallways were safe to evacuate.

Rosolie borrowed the security idea from a school safety conference he attended in southern Maryland last month. The conference was hosted by the White House and moderated by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

“Wow, that’s simple,” Rosolie said of the security plan. “Why didn’t anyone think of it before?”

President George Bush called the Oct. 10 summit after a string of school shootings, including the West Nickel Mines School massacre in Bart Township.

The objective was to open dialogue among experts on school violence. Educators could come home with ideas about how to prevent violence, increase security and deal with the aftermath of a school tragedy.

The president made it very clear the day of the conference that no new government policies would come from the event.

Held less than 30 days before the midterm election, some, mostly Washington Democrats, argued the summit was just for show.

But a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said Wednesday the conference was “absolutely” productive.

“It was very timely and very much needed,” Jo Ann Webb said. “One of the lessons learned was the need for better and broader dissemination of resources (and) programs available at the Department.”

On Oct. 18, the education department sent a letter to public and private schools outlining the conference’s main ideas and offering a Web site “to learn more about strategies that can be implemented to help schools in your community prevent violent incidents.”

For Rosolie — he and Cocalico principal Andrew Terry were the only Lancaster County school administrators there — the conference provided good ideas, but nothing spectacular.

“They talked about ongoing information and programs, and I realize that’s not the only thing on the plate in Washington,” Rosolie said. “But it would be nice to hear something else was occurring with it rather than waiting for another tragedy.”

Terry said the conference accomplished its mission.

“It’s gotten us sitting down with each other more, talking about safety for the students,” he said.

For that reason, he said, Cocalico High School is safer today than it was before the summit.

“It was more a focus on ... (helping) you look at your policies again,” Terry said. “They just wanted to get people talking about it.”

Quay Hanna, a reformed racist and local motivational speaker, also attended the conference.

He said just talking won’t stop school violence.

“I don’t like inactivity,” Hanna said. “The bottom line is you have to get in there and get in the mix. It seems very few want to get their hands dirty.”

Rather than increasing security, Hanna said, schools need more mentors for teenagers “starving for adults to be interested in their lives.”

President Bush said last month the lessons from the summit needed to be taken to the local level.

Earlier this month, Rep. Joe Pitts called his own summit to rehash the safety issues.

Rosolie and Terry gave presentations on what they’d taken from the national conference.

“To me, that was a good, tangible result because it forced us to come back and talk about these things very specifically,” Rosolie said. “I would hope that other places did similar things when they came back.”


Colby Itkowitz's e-mail address is citkowitz@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus