School cop: 'First priority is safety of students'
BELFAST (Nov 6): Had Randall Hofland entered Belfast Area High School with a gun in his hand last week, he would likely have encountered an armed, uniformed police officer named Greg Stearns.
He has followed the developments at the Stockton Springs Elementary School with great interest. “Something like that can happen anywhere,” he said Monday in the office of Principal Butch Arthers. “It keeps us aware and alert.”
Stearns' position was created last year after several incidents at the high school, including a fire set in a bathroom, a bomb threat and a loaded gun that was brought to the school.
Arthers said, “Greg's everyday presence makes people realize they will have a cop to deal with [if something goes wrong]."
Asked to describe the school's readiness for a volatile situation such as Hofland's appearance in Stockton Springs, Stearns and Arthers said training begun after last year's incidents is ongoing. And there are plans being made to make the building even more secure.
Arthers said the school was locked down for a day after Hofland allegedly pointed a gun at a Searsport officer during a seat belt safety check Oct. 23 and took off. That means the exterior doors were locked and regularly monitored with security cameras in case he showed up there. Anyone wanting to enter the school had to be assisted by a staff member during the lockdown, Arthers said.
Should an armed or undesirable person get into the school, Stearns said, “Our first priority is the safety of the students; the safety of 650 [students] is more important than one gunman.”
Stearns has completed an FBI negotiations course and said he would begin negotiating with the intruder. “Negotiations do work,” he said. “Sometimes they take a minute or two, sometimes they take hours. The hope is that no one's gun is used.”
The intruder's weapon is, of course, a major concern, Stearns said. “If [the gunman] is ordered to put the gun down and refuses to do it and threatens someone with it, we have to act on that.”
Local police have had training in what is called an “active shooter” situation, in which a gunman has entered a public space like a school. Arthers said the school's job in that situation is to get everyone into classrooms and lock the doors and let the police take over.
He said students are urged to get into the nearest room as quickly as possible because anyone in the hall during an active shooter emergency is considered a suspect.
As soon as possible, Arthers said, all students and staff in the building are evacuated according to a plan that is still being worked on. Basically, it means everyone leaves the building and gets on school buses for a trip to Troy Howard Middle School.
Arthers said school personnel have been instructed on who will lock what exterior doors in an emergency. He stressed the school's job is to get everyone behind locked doors and let the police take care of the intruder.
Though BAHS has bulked up its security since last year's episodes, Arthers said more changes may be coming. He is currently working on a plan to reconfigure the main entrance to require all visitors to first enter the central office.
The building now has a long canopy that leads to a small foyer with two sets of doors. Under Arthers' plan, the office and lobby would be extended toward the parking lot, creating a larger foyer. The exterior doors would lead to the foyer and would always be open. The second set of doors would be locked except when students are arriving for the day or leaving in the afternoon.
Staff members, including Stearns, would be stationed at the doors at those times.
A door from the foyer would lead into the central office, where a visitor would sign in. The visitor could then enter the building. The plan has not yet been presented to the school board, Arthers said.
Stearns said, “Nothing is perfect or foolproof,” and “every situation is different.” He said the Stockton Springs situation “was handled wonderfully, by everyone.”
The SRO position is working well, both men said. “I think I'm being accepted [by students and staff],” Stearns offered. “I'm a small piece of a huge team.”
Arthers added, “I've said all along, it had to be the right person selected for this job. Greg is one of the right people, and that's a key.”
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