Dressed in uniforms that included protective vests and side arms, Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde and School Resource Officer Tom Hoepner presented the Regional School Unit 40 Board of Directors with a report on the department’s activities at the Waldoboro schools.
The annual presentation came just six days after a gunman armed with a semi-automatic weapon and two pistols and killed 20 school children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Hoepner said he primarily works at the Miller School, Medomak Valley High School and Medomak Middle School. He said he does not have jurisdiction in the other RSU 40 towns to make an arrest but. as truant officer, accompanies staff members from any of the district’s towns when they visit the homes of students with attendance issues.
“I give them the speech of ‘Until you’re 17 you have to have an education of some sort,'” Hoepner said. He said his success rate in reducing truancy has improved.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 20 police made 53 visits to Medomak Middle School. The majority of those, 30 calls, were routine property checks to make sure the building was secure. There were six arrests, including one assault, one drug investigation, one case of harassment and three that were classified as “juvenile problems.” Hoepner said an arrest may be a summons that is presented in regard to an event that originally took place outside of school.
Hoepner said student fights often begin in social networks such as Facebook, where adolescent drama plays out. He said overall incidents have not increased in recent years, but students are becoming more comfortable reporting concerns to him.
“There is zero tolerance for fighting,” Hoepner said. “The aggressor gets charged with a summons.”
He said video cameras at MMS and MVHS make it easier for police to investigate fights and determine who the aggressor was. Labombarde said self-defense means using only enough force to extract oneself from a violent situation. Anything beyond that is considered fighting back and is not acceptable.
“Sometimes when you charge a kid with a crime, that could be the beginning of something totally different for the child,” Labombarde said. He said an arrest can open the doors for a child to have access to counseling and other services.
Police made 219 calls to MVHS in the last year. Of these, 95 were property checks. There were 19 arrests, seven for assault and seven for harassment and two for theft, forgery or fraud.
Miller School received 107 police visits, with 85 of those being property checks. Among the medical emergencies, juvenile problems and suspicious activities, there was only one arrest, for the erratic operation of a motor vehicle.
Labombarde told the board the Waldoboro police and emergency management departments, has purchased software that will enable them to create virtual response exercises. The software will be used to create models of the buildings, allowing responders to practice possible reactions before incidents take place. During an incident, the program will make it possible for someone off-site to identify control panels and direct activities when smoke or darkness make it difficult for those on the scene to find their way.
“It shows a 360-degree picture of an area,” Labombarde said. “You can see where threats are and the features of the room” He said he expects to begin using the new system at MVHS in the spring.
In response to a question from parent Brooke Simmons, of Friendship, Hoepner said Waldoboro is sometimes called to schools outside of its jurisdiction, in a manner similar to the mutual aid agreements between fire and ambulance companies.
“All police in Maine have statewide jurisdiction when there’s an emergency,” he said. Hoepner said he has the authority to detain an suspect outside of Waldoboro, but only someone from State Police, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office or a federal law enforcement agency can make an arrest in Friendship, for example.
In her superintendent’s report, Supt. Susan Pratt said the schools have been proactive in preparing for major events that might require students to be locked within their classrooms or evacuated from campuses.
She described the drills that have already taken place this year, including four evacuation drills and two lockdown drills at MVHS, six evacuation drills and one lockdown drill at MMS and five evacuation drills and two lockdown drills at Miller. Pratt said state law requires that each school practice at least nine evacuation drills per year.
While lockdown drills are not required, Pratt said she recommends each school have at least one a year. The board briefly discussed refining the policy that requires such drills.
Pratt said Facilities and Transportation Supervisor George Bridges was looking into an identification card system that would enable administrators to control who enters and leaves the buildings, as well as monitoring and controlling locks, lights and other systems.
In other business, the meeting began with a statement by Waldoboro parent Katlin Puchalski, who thanked the board for maintaining small class sizes at the Miller School. She said her two children are flourishing at Miller and that she was particularly pleased with the reading program.
Later in the agenda, Principal Robert Blackman and Director of Student Services Karen Etheridge took the board through exercise in which they responded to statements about educational theories. The exercise was similar to those being carried out as part of a staff development program. Participants read quotations and then wrote their responses on large sheets of paper. Each member of the group was given time to respond to all the quotations and to read what others had said. Such exercises are called table top exercises.
“There’s a lot you can do with this activity,” Blackman said. He said a sixth grade teacher at Prescott School uses it to find out what motivates students to read. The answers to that exercise were posted on the school’s walls, he said.
The board also heard from MVHS horticulture teacher Neil Lash with a request that the board support a recitation contest in commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, when the 150th anniversary of that event is celebrated Nov. 19.
Lash said the school has a Gettysburg honey locust tree that came from the site of the famous speech. He said this presents the school with an opportunity to “help inculcate the importance of this historic event.”
Lash said he hopes to raise funds for cash prizes for students in all grades, for reciting Lincoln’s speech. He also wants to invite dignitaries of statewide and national prominence to the event.
Board member Lynda Letteney, of Waldoboro, suggested inviting Civil War reenactors to take part in the local commemoration. While no vote was taken, the board gave consensus support to Lash’s proposal.
Lash also noted the third week of November will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The next meeting of the Regional School Unit 40 Board of Directors will take place Thurs., Jan. 3, 2013 at 7 p.m. at Medomak Middle School. For more information, call the RSU 40 Central Office at 785-2277.
