Chuck Hughes, Board of Education
♦ There seems be some innuendo that the shooting incident at Salisbury High on Monday could have been prevented. In hindsight, there are always Monday Morning Quarterbacks with “fixes that should have been in place earlier.” I understand these concerns, but the reality is there is not always a solution to prevent every potential negative outcome other than turning our schools into prisons and disregarding student, parent, staff and community resident freedoms.
Some parents expressed concern that there was a delay in them being notified following the Salisbury High incident. As a parent, I too would have wanted to know straightaway what was going on. However, the first priority in any crisis is to insure the safety of everyone who is at risk. Everything else is secondary. The next issue is insuring that the situation is under control. The latter is the responsibility of the RSO and other law enforcement professionals. Although both of these concerns are usually addressed at the same time, insuring the incident is over and the school is again a safe zone can be very time consuming. The speed of comprehension and response to the incident were remarkable.
I met with Salisbury High’s principal yesterday morning at which time he took me through the incident pretty much step by step. I left his office very satisfied and impressed with the immediacy of action and the sound judgment exercised by him and his staff. As heartbreaking as this incident was, the professionalism exhibited by Salisbury High’s principal and his staff was nothing less than excellent.
