KENOSHA — After two recent scares at Kenosha area schools, the board will hear from community members at a meeting on Tuesday night.
For many, the back-to-back threats have been surreal and while the solution is still unknown, they're hoping the school board meeting will bring them another step closer to figuring it out.
"I got grandchildren in school," said grandfather William Gwaltney. "Safety for them, well I heard they put metal detectors up. That’s a plus I guess. Teachers, some of them want to have permission to carry handguns. Not necessarily everyone is happy about that.”
“I think that becomes a frightening atmosphere at school," said Kenosha resident Julie Weiss. "I’ll never forget one time I went to an in-service. We were observing classes in Milwaukee and just as a teacher we had to go through the metal detectors in Milwaukee and that just I don’t know. I kind of felt unnerved by that.”
The topic of metal detectors is not specifically listed on Tuesday night's agenda. So, while community members are welcome to share opinions about it during the "Views and Comments by the Public" portion of the meeting, we're told the board is not legally able to respond to them.
"...in alignment with state statute, Board members will not reply to pubic comments unless they are related to an item properly noticed in tonight's agenda and will do so at the time it is addressed on the agenda."
You can find the full agenda for the regular school board meeting here.
Just last week, a 16-year-old student was arrested after walking into Indian Trail High School with a loaded gun. In November, a 13-year-old was arrested with an air-soft gun, that looked like an automatic rifle, after he walked into Roosevelt Elementary.
The school board did pass a referendum for safety improvements and voters will have a chance to decide on that early next year.
"I know now that the students are upset and disturbed by the ALICE training itself, but it’s like what is happening now," said Weiss. "We don’t have a choice.”
In the meantime, people like Gwaltney and Weiss are hoping families in the district can experience some peace of mind whether that be by way of new district policy, rules, or laws.
“How do you protect our kids from kids, law enforced," Gwaltney asked himself. "How do people quit speeding? They’ll speed when there’s no cops around. Put a cop and what do they do? Slow down. They honor the law as long as someone is there to enforce it. So, there must be a penalty for people who violate our school systems.”
Watch: Kenosha families to discuss safety solutions with school board.
“I have a friend of mine who lives in Florida and her older son was in Columbine when that incident happened and then they moved down to Florida and her daughter went through Parkland," said Weiss. "So to have to incidents like that to happen in one family just blew my mind but this is now the stage we’re at. I don’t have an answer myself but I don’t think we’re going about it the right way.”
The school board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the John J. Hosmanek Educational Support Center located at 3600 52nd St, Kenosha, WI, 53144
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