Summit Lane Door Monitor Debate Continues

By Susie Trenkle

During the public section of the January 14 Levittown Board of Education meeting, the issue of door monitors for Summit Lane Elementary School was once again raised by parents.

This gaping fence is at Summit Lane Elementary School where parents are calling for tighter security because they feel their children's safety is at risk.

Summit Lane parent Diane Lentini started off the discussion by stating that on October 6 the school board was asked to hire a door monitor for the school, an issue that was raised once again at the November 12 board meeting, and instead in December a lunch monitor was hired. She had been told by Superintendent Herman Sirois that the hiring of a door monitor would have to be discussed in budget hearings before anything could be done about the situation. Lentini feels that this is a double standard since hiring a lunch monitor did not have to be discussed in the budget hearings. Lentini says that: "by getting a lunch monitor on the payroll and in place overnight without having it go through a budget process proves that it can be done." She feels that to let a new lunch monitor take precedence over a door monitor shows that the school's priorities are scrambled.

Rhonda DeSimone, another Summit Lane parent, described how the layout of the school did not allow for anyone to notice if a stranger was entering the school. She asked the board if an intruder could enter the school undetected and Dr. Sirois responded: "Of course." DeSimone says there are two possible options to remedy this situation: 1) Change the outlay of the school so the office is in closer proximity to the doorway, or 2) Hire a door monitor. She says that hiring a monitor seems to be the most practical and reasonable approach.

Theresa Paladini, who actually asked to have a lunch monitor installed at Summit Lane, thanked the board for responding to that request but stressed that the safety of their children was still an issue.

Linda Corbo brought up the fact that many things, including a large mural, have disappeared from the 50th Anniversary display at Summit Lane. She says that nobody has any idea what happened to these items. Corbo feels that if somebody could just walk right into the school and steal a large mural then couldn't they do the same thing to a child without anyone noticing? The only difference she says is that a mural is replaceable, while a child is not.

In the November 21 issue of the Tribune, Dr. Sirois was quoted as saying: "Our schools, thank God, are safe. At this point we don't believe that a specific danger exists." It was pointed out to the board by Jean Kaiser that a danger does exist at Summit Lane because of its proximity to the Tri-County Flea Market as well as to an out-patient mental institution. She added that "schools in our district all have different needs." While security measures such as this may not be as important at other schools in the district parents believe that Summit Lane children are at risk. Many of the speakers felt that the safety of their children is not being taken seriously. For them: "playing wait and see is a dangerous game." The Summit Lane parents do not want to wait for a problem to arise to have something done about the safety of their children.

This issue came to the forefront when a man was caught sleeping in the faculty room of Summit Lane over the summer. It is Lentini's opinion that: "it is not the creation of the position, nor giving it to all the schools, nor the issue of discussing it at the next budget development process, but a possible lack of desire and a resistance in school officials to accept a change in school security, as well as a sense of denial regarding the potential for a crime to be committed at the school."

Dr. Sirois stated that "the administration will review this issue with the board during the next budget cycle." Presently the board is waiting to receive information from neighboring schools about their security measures.