LANSDALE – During last week’s North Penn School Board action meeting, Superintendent Dr. Todd Bauer addressed concerns regarding a recent incident in which a 9mm handgun was found on a 16-year old North Penn High School student. At Monday’s Safe Schools Committee meeting, Bauer, along with Chief Timothy Troxel of Towamencin Police; Brandon Rhone, Coordinator of Emergency Management and Safe Schools; Jonathan Kassa, Safe Schools Chair; and Cathy McMurtrie, School Board President discussed the district’s future approaches to school safety. Most specifically, the committee meeting brought up points of reasoning for district actions during the incident, policy change of Evolv weapons detection, and communication between the district and community. 

“It has been the practice of this board, and specifically this committee, when we have a serious incident that occurs in one of our schools, we kind of bring it forward and talk about it the best we can in this format, because we believe the community deserves that,” Bauer said. 

For specific summary details regarding last Tuesday’s incident, Bauer encourages viewing of the recent action meeting. Bauer additionally explained that certain details are not released, in accordance with juvenile rights, but still provided a brief summary and timeline of events. 

“We are all very disappointed in the incident that happened last week. It’s a scary incident, and one that I outline that I have not experienced in my time here in the school district. But, I am very proud of the way that our folks handled it. I will speak specifically to Mr. Rhone, Mr. Hassler, Mr. Bernie Jones,” Bauer said. 

Coordinator of Emergency Management and Safe Schools Brandon Rhone took over to discuss the reasoning behind choices made regarding the incident, and specifically why the school did not go into a hold or a lockdown; rather, the student in possession of the handgun was taken by security during the changes of classes with the rest of the students present in the hallways.

“It was because within a matter of minutes- quite frankly, seconds- Mr. Jones was able to have contact and have that student with him and began escorting. Typically, when we would put a building in a hold or in a lockdown, it could be because we are actively looking for someone. In this particular case, the timing and the way in which it happened, the situation did not call for a hold or a lockdown because we had the individual that we were indeed looking for. There was no need to disrupt the rest of the building,” Rhone said.

“Every situation will present its own response. There really is not a ‘one size fits all’ that says, ‘no matter what, you always do a, no matter what you always do b.’ That’s not the case in handling emergencies or other types of events, because there are always nuances and specifics to each individual case that we may address,” Rhone said further.

Chief Troxel also commented on the pacing of the release of information, and explained that adherence to policy and correctness of information is the priority. 

“We have to be very careful because we’re still trying to interview people. We have similar restrictions to the school district. With it being a juvenile we can’t just talk to them. There has to be a parent present, there has to be permission from an attorney. There always has to be those protections in place for the individual involved because they do have due process and rights,” Troxel said. 

“You have to make sure you have it right. People live in an instantaneous messaging kind of world, where they want the information right now. Sometimes, not only do we not have it, but now we have to put it together in such a way that’s understandable, that’s clear, that’s concise, and that has the proper information. That doesn’t happen in five minutes,” Troxel explained further.

Troxel also added that, similar to the school district, the police department constantly is seeking to be better and looks to incidents such as these to find spots in which they can improve. 

“In any situation, any time we have a serious incident, on the police side of things, we always try to go back and say ‘we’re never perfect. What can we do better? Let’s identify problems, let’s try to make it so that it’s smoother, so that it’s not a concern, so that things that we might not have considered before, we now know we have to think about.’ We always look at things with a critical eye,” Troxel said.

Bauer then spoke on the Evolv weapons detection system and the changing of policy. 

“We actually made revisions to the policy that morning, prior to the incident occurring. You can’t just search students because you want to. There has to be reasonable suspicion that they are breaking a school rule. It brings to question, is scanning using a weapons detection system like Evolv a search, or is it not?” Bauer explained.

“When we adopted the policy initially, we adopted it with the understanding that we would utilize the weapons detection for one of the following three reasons: Number one was randomly, so we would deploy it randomly throughout the school district to different schools. Two is when we have large scale events with a number of visitors to our campus. And lastly, when there is actually concern or a threat. We felt like we were at a point now where this was something we could do on a more regular basis,” Bauer said. 

Moving forward, the policy change will implement daily screening and continual use for events as a precautionary measure. Rhone provided a presentation on what the Evolv system looks like, explaining that students will pass through it each morning when entering the building.

School board student representatives were also present in the meeting, and North Penn High School senior Thomas Judge spoke to the Evolv weapons detection system from a student perspective, noting that the routine process of regularly going through the detectors will naturally show an improvement. Overall, the weapons detection system has been running smoothly.

“I’ve seen students and the security guards, everybody’s just so connected and there’s not ever really a big deal. If there is a big deal, then the machine was doing its job. I’ve heard multiple students say as well, they feel safer” Judge said.

While the benefits of security systems are certainly clear, Bauer also stressed the importance of strong relationships between security, staff, and administrators with the students, adding that students should feel comfortable to go to the adults in the building and the adults should recognize when something isn’t right. 

“The best means of school security is having relationships with students and students feeling comfortable that they can report something. Those relationships allow the adults to see that student and say, ‘You know what, something’s not okay.’ The relationships are far more important than a weapons detection system or a security camera,” Bauer said.

Bauer then passed the meeting over to Mr. Bob Gillmer, Coordinator of Communications Media at North Penn School District, to share how families can be certain they are receiving communication from the district.

Gillmer explained that as soon as a child is registered with a guardian’s contact information, the guardian will be able to receive notifications. He also noted that many people unsubscribe from newsletters without realizing, and it is important to be subscribed to receive all news and messages from the school. To resubscribe, families can contact Gillmer through email at [email protected]. Gillmer also shared North Penn’s School Messenger FAQ page, where more information can be found. 

The next Safe Schools Committee meeting will be held virtually on November 24 at 5:45pm. Meeting agendas and information can be found on the North Penn School District website.