Manchester School Officials Hold Parent Meeting On Safety Concerns

In the wake of an April school board meeting where parents complained about student safety at Manchester High School, Manchester Township Superintendent David Trethaway held a meeting for parents Monday night to address some of the concerns.

“During our last Board of Education meeting there were several parents who expressed concerns regarding safety and security issues at the high school,” Trethaway said in a meeting notice posted on the district’s website. “We did meet with the (Manchester Township) police department and Mayor (Kenneth) Palmer today, May 7th, and we are working on several suggestions for additional ways to address some of the safety and security issues.”

Rumors about problems have been circulating widely in the community since mid-March, when a confrontation in the high school cafeteria resulted in a “shelter in place” order being issued to prevent further issues, Trethaway said at the time.

Trethaway at that time said the situation arose after two students got into a physical altercation in the cafeteria.

“At the same time we received information about an issue outside the school possibly spilling over into the school,” he said. To prevent any issues, school officials ordered the shelter in place while they sorted out the facts, he said.

He did not have specifics on what the issue was that had transpired outside of school. “All we got was that it occurred outside school,” Trethaway said at the time.

However, the mother of one student says there was no altercation, but that her daughter was attacked.

“My daughter was sitting and eating and the other girl walked over and attacked her,” Jill Dollar of Manchester said.

The district has added cameras and safety equipment to each of the district’s schools, and it has a school resource officer, Christopher Cerullo, who is a police officer with the Manchester Township Police Department.

But parents who attended the April school board meeting said those measures are inadequate to deter the current issues, according to a report in the Manchester Times. Several parents called for more security, suggesting the district add security guards to help deal with the issues, the report said.

Parents also asked the Board of Education what the school can do to deal with violent students, according to the Manchester Times report. Board attorney Thomas Monihan said state laws and regulation dictate how student discipline issues are handled; expulsion is no longer an option for public schools under the No Child Left Behind act. Violent children ages 16 and younger are referred to the school’s child study team.

After the April board meeting, Trethaway posted a message to parents and the community on his blog that reads, in part, “In addition to the relevant issues, there was some information presented at the Board Meeting and also on social media that was not totally accurate. I would encourage anyone who has a concern or question regarding a safety issue or any other issue to please contact the school or my office. In this way we can focus on the relevant issues that need to be addressed and not be distracted by misinformation.”

Dollar said her daughter is not the only student who has been beaten up; her daughters have witnessed other incidents involving the same group of students who attacked the younger daughter. Dollar said she wants to see the students who are repeat offenders dealt with in a way that assures the safety of all the students.

”(The school) needs to be safe for all of our children,” Dollar said.

“I believe our schools are safe but we are not perfect,” Trethaway said in his blog post after the April meeting. “It is important that we continually work to address safety and security issues to make our schools even safer. In order to accomplish this we need to continue to work cooperatively with our police department and continue to gather input and address concerns from our parents, staff, and students.”

Trethaway’s notice said plans to address some of the issues will be presented tonight.

The next school board meeting is Wednesday, with the public session beginning at 7:30 p.m.