Hewlett-Woodmere board considers external armed security amid rising school shootings

The Hewlett-Woodmere Board of Education is discussing the option of arming security officers guarding school property.

Donald Flynn, president of Covert Investigations and Security, a school security assessment and management company, spoke at the Dec. 13 school board work meeting.

As of Dec. 6, there had been at least 80 school shootings across the United States this year. This tops any year since 2008, when CNN began tracking shootings at schools. Fifty-one had occurred on kindergarten-through-12th-grade school grounds, and 29 on college campuses, killing at least 37 people and injuring 80, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.

“It’s something that, unfortunately at this point in our society, we need to have this conversation and have this as a board, as a governance team, but also as a community,” Hewlett-Woodmere Superintendent Ralph Marino Jr. said. “We want to keep our students and staff and visitors safe.”

Covert has been involved with the district for over a year, providing health, safety and security personnel. At last week’s presentation, Flynn detailed for the board and the public how armed security could be added to the district’s five schools, to deal with threats from active shooters.

“Our discussion tonight is not to recommend or not recommend — it’s to provide as many details … that we can to the board and the administration as it relates to the potential armed guard initiative,” Flynn said.

The district refrained from sharing the Covert presentation online, and Flynn did not address some questions, citing security considerations.

“It’s unfortunate that we know that those individuals who are prone to commit such an egregious act — they spend the better part of six, 12, 18 months studying, so we’re very calculated as to what we discuss in public,” Flynn said of school shooters in recent history.

Analysts from the company, as well as security consultants, joined him at the presentation.

He detailed some of the company’s tactical measures, including behavioral threat assessment, in which Covert studies the mental health and social emotional awareness of those involved in a situation where they see a threat, he said.

“The foundation of everything we do on a day-to-day basis starts out of the behavioral threat assessment and attention to mental health,” Flynn said. “There is nothing more important as it pertains to intervention. We see a commonality in a lot of these instances that take place.”

He explained that the company works hand in hand with local police departments, in this case the Nassau County Police Department, with the intention of reducing their response time in the case of an active shooter. With armed security officers outside school buildings, Dan Colondona, a former Suffolk County police officer and a Covert employee, explained, the company can respond to a shooting in seconds, rather than a police department’s standard three to five minutes.

Bryan Frank, a security consultant for Covert, is a former principal at Accompsett Elementary School, in Smithtown, which used armed security from Covert.

“I have a unique perspective, having been an elementary school principal, but also having a Covert guard out in front of my building,” Frank said. “It was also comforting to me to have an extra layer of protection.”

School board President Debra Sheinin asked that armed officers not be used for student discipline or student altercations inside the building. “Absolutely not,” Flynn responded.

Board members voiced concerns about the open campus of Hewlett High School, discussed the effectiveness of metal detectors, and asked what time of day a security detail would be working, given the length of the school day, with extracurricular activities. Community members voiced concerns of their own about how enhanced security would prevent weapons from entering the schools.

Covert officials were asked about the NCPD’s recommendations for the Hewlett-Woodmere district, but Flynn declined to speak on the department’s behalf.

As of press time, the school district had not issued a request for proposals from other security companies.

“I would like somebody who knows our district to tell us, or look and see what our best avenues are,” Sheinin said. “To me, it doesn’t seem effective enough,” she added, referring to the exterior armed security initiative, “so I’d like to see what other options we have.”

Have an opinion on armed external security at schools? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.