Letter to the SRVUSD Board and Superintendent:

The tragic events in CT last week remind us all as you say that 'no community is immune'. This could have easily happened in any one of our schools, to any of our children. None of the safety procedures would have prevented an event like this on our campus. The fact of the matter is, anyone can enter our school at any time and decide to murder innocent children and teachers. For absolutely no reason. No one could stop an insane person from doing this tomorrow, next week or next year. As we learn more about the heroic efforts of teachers hiding their students in closets and then being murdered makes us cry for them and for all of the simply senseless loss of life.

We feel as many other parents do, that many areas of concern remain and are risks on campus. For example, the always open school yards. There are no gates, no locks preventing someone from entering the yard with a gun or many guns. The yard is open to all, any time. Yes some people do wear badges but no one says anything to those who do not wear a badge. There are many open gate doors for anyone to enter at any time as well. Nothing is ever done to secure these gates.

We feel the above examples are the biggest opportunity for improvement in order to further secure our children and teachers. There has to be additional steps that the district can take to improve the security?

We'd really love the Board to hold a special meeting, open to the public to discuss the safety opportunities within the district. At a time like this parents need to see more being done honestly. While we understand that there any indeed many precautions in place, I must reiterate, none of them would have saved our school from falling victim to this type of violence. Anyone can walk into the school at any time.

Thanks for being open to holding a special meeting to discuss security. I'm certain that the parents of the district would appreciate the opportunity to discuss and ask questions of you and the board.

I encourage you all to write to the Board and Mary Shelton about this critical issue.