Salem School Security Questions Addressed For New Year

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools has increased security measures and made protocols more consistent across schools in the district as they prepare to welcome back students for the new school year.

Those enhancements include new security cameras at Salem High School and Carlton School, increased communication alternatives in the event of an emergency, card-controlled doors that discourage the need to "prop doors open" and testing of existing panic buttons in each school that can alert police to an emergency when a phone call is not an option.

"We've increased our coordination with Salem police making sure we have more regular dialogue with them," Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said. "They are at the table with us. We are actively talking about the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) approach and whether that needs to be tweaked based on new information about what happened (during the school shooting) in Uvalde (Texas).

"There have been a number of meetings between myself and the police chief (Lucas Miller) over the summer to talk about our planning and they are actively giving us feedback on our school safety plans."

Zrike said he will direct the revamped District Safety Team this year with each school then having its own team consisting of administration and staff. He said protocols were reviewed and revised to create consistency across all the schools in the district.

A new administration entrance was also created at the Collins Middle School that helps form better sightlines and distinguish those visiting the central office from those entering the school for educational purposes.

He said the panic buttons, which were installed in each school a decade ago, were tested and all work. Upgrades to the phone system and radios were added to make sure there are lines of communication in the event the public address system cannot be used.

Zrike said he intends to schedule a second public discussion meeting alongside Chief Miller sometime later in September or in early October.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)