There’s a guiding principle to the approach to safety in the Poughkeepsie City School District’s buildings.

“Once these kids come under our roof, they are our responsibility, and I take that very seriously,” said Luis Melendez, director of school security.

Across the district, school buildings are kept safe by security staff, school resource officers, main entrance vestibules that limit access and millions of dollars in security equipment obtained through various grants and investments of district funding that can identify potential threats before they enter.

The tragic reality of gun violence in schools returned to the forefront this month. The fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia has led many school districts to reexamine safety plans to ensure they are trained and ready for anything that may unfold within their doors.

In Poughkeepsie, security staff leaders say that’s an ongoing process regardless of what is happening nationally, but they’re ahead of the curve in terms of infrastructure in place.

There are 130 cameras operating across the district, including cameras at every entrance and placed strategically at areas inside and outside of buildings, with a rapid search function for faces or identifying features like a shirt of a specific color. Each building is also equipped with the “Raptor Visitor Management System,” which enables greeters and security staff to instantly screen any visitor for possible security risks using their ID, and is synced with the student information system.

The high and middle schools have metal detectors and bag scanners, and staff has wands to check individuals as they enter.

“We have more than most districts. Newburgh, which is considered a busy district, they came here to see our metal detectors, our Raptor system, our scanner system. There are other districts looking at us as the people who are in front of all this, at the forefront in terms of security in schools,” Melendez said. “For us to be a smaller district and still see the value and importance of safety investments – we’re miles ahead of other people.”

This summer, work was completed constructing uniform security vestibules at every school building, cutting off visitors from entering without having their ID scanned and signing in. Melendez notes also, nobody is allowed to enter without a specific appointment.

Each building has keycard access, which can be instantly turned off in the event a card is lost or if that employee no longer should have building access. They also have lockdown alarms and alarms to sound if doors have been propped open. Each room has a chart listing emergency security procedures.

While the equipment is advanced, it’s the people, and the communication between staff, law enforcement, faculty and the broader community, which is the key to it all. Poughkeepsie has a security team with more than two dozen positions, in addition to its two school resource officers, Det. Karen Zirbel at the middle school and Officer Jonathan Geuss at the high school.

“The only thing that equals the playing field in any district is the human element,” Melendez said. “If we don’t do our job, it renders that equipment useless.”

Geuss said SROs play a variety of roles in the school community: assisting in general security inside and outside of the buildings, investigating any sort of crime that may happen, and advising on the general safety strategy. He said his main role is to “be a resource” for the school and a conduit for community relations.

“I try to fill in any gaps the security staff may need,” he said. “They work tirelessly, they’re consummate professionals.”

However, he noted, “In extreme circumstances, I’ll be the first line of defense against an active shooter.”

It’s a responsibility he accepts, though he said he stresses to students and families the rarity of those incidents occurring. He said 1% of all homicides are the result of an active shooter.

“We should train for the threat, do lockdown drills according to how many times the state wants to do it,” Geuss said. “At the same time, I like to put that statistic in kids’ ears to let them know that, these things happen, but the likelihood of them happening is low. It’s important to keep those things in perspective.”

Each year, the district compiles a safety plan approved by the Board of Education that details preventative and response procedures for various threats, whether it be a violent act or a health or weather emergency. It includes such practices as when and where staff can enter buildings as opposed to visitors, where school monitors should be stationed, and the duties of security staff:

• Patrolling hallways, bathrooms and stairwells.
• Walking the perimeter of the school to check parking lots and shrubbery for people or items that may not belong.
• Stopping students without hallway passes.
• Checking all doors on a regular basis and responding to door alarms.
• Responding to physical altercations or calls for assistance removing individuals.
• Responding to building-level emergencies.

All staff members receive training, including on Superintendent’s Conference Days, in procedures for detecting, preventing and responding to emergency situations. The district engages in a variety of broad and targeted strategies, including following the Dignity for All Students ACT, or DASA, in an effort to identify and prevent potentially violent situations.

Communication is the key, Melendez said. That includes between himself, the SROs and the larger City of Poughkeepsie Police Department – he meets monthly with members of the department to share information – himself and his staff, and the school staff in general.

He pointed to a situation in which a middle school student was determined to leave school to find his brother in the high school. The team leader in the middle school called the high school to look out for the student, and the staff was able to intercept him when he came into the building.

“Our communication was such that we were prepared for what might happen,” Melendez said. “It’s everybody’s effort. It’s not just the safety team. It’s the teachers, it’s the parents. I try to impress upon them, as well, if we help each other we can get to a certain point faster. And it comes back to communication.”