Superintendent: Heavy Police Presence in Stow Schools after Newtown Shooting

In light of the on Friday, Stow-Munroe Falls Superintendent Russ Jones sent out a message to the community to say that the district plans to have a physical police presence in all of its buildings. 

Here is the full message: 

This past Friday, we all experienced the unimaginable ... the most horrific event that I have experienced as a professional educator ... what we saw and what we heard is simply unbelievable.

This has changed everything. Just like Sept. 11 changed how we travel at airports, what happened this past Friday has changed what happens in our schools.

I have been in conversation this weekend with board members, Stow Mayor Sara Drew and Munroe Falls Mayor Frank Larson and I can assure you that all of us are committed to the safety of our children, of our teachers and all of our staff members.

You will all see this week, and throughout this entire week a very heavy police presence in all of our buildings. The board is committed to as well as Mayors Drew and Larson to develop a plan to have a security presence in every one of our buildings for the long term.

We will be giving you more information on what that will look like, but in meantime, I want to thank the mayors and our chiefs for their quick support to make sure that our police presence will be available this week to give us time to develop a plan to ensure that we do have again a physical security presence in every single building as we move forward in the long term.

In the interim, principals are reviewing with their staff our security procedures and our teachers and staff members will be working very hard to make sure perimeters doors and entrance ways are locked and secure so hall buildings have one entrance and we can monitor that and ensure the safety of our children.

I ensure you our buildings are safe. We are committed that all the teachers and staff members can do their jobs and learn and do it in a safe fashion. Thank you for your time and have a great evening. — Superintendent Russ Jones