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Schools

Board of Education Approves New School Security Measures

Incident with parent on April 26 moves school board to review procedures at the middle school.

The East Haven Board of Education Tuesday approved new security precautions at Joseph Melillo Middle School following a recent incident in the school's cafeteria involving a parent who confronted a student for bullying her daughter.

Several television stations covered the school board meeting Tuesday when the issue came up, prompting Chairman Nick Palladino to scold some of the television reporters for only showing up for sensational, negative stories.

Some of the new measures actually have already been implemented, according to School Superintendent Anthony Serio.

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They include transferring a security guard from East Haven High School to Joseph Melillo Middle School, frequent sweeps of the school by school employees to make sure all the doors are locked and secured, and new procedures for visitors to follow when they come to the school.

Visitors, including parents, must check in at the front door with the security guard, show a photo ID, present a reason for being at the school and then go to the main office where the staff will determine if the individual’s reason is legitimate.

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Then all visitors must be escorted to their destination in the school and escorted out of the school when they are done with their visit.

The new security measures were outlined in a motion by school board member Ronald DeNuzzo and approved unanimously.

The only reservation came from Palladino, who said he wasn’t sure the board has a right to refuse to allow a parent to attend a parent-teacher conference if the parent refuses to provide a photo ID.

DeNuzzo is employed as a police inspector with the Litchfield office of the State’s Attorney, and Palladino is a former East Haven police officer who served as the DARE officer stationed at the middle school.

The incident that generated the security concerns happened on April 26 when a parent, Nicole Sciarra, went to the school after hearing another student was harassing her daughter in the cafeteria.

According to published reports, Sciarra went directly to the cafeteria without checking in with the main office. In the cafeteria, police reports said she caused a disturbance by confronting the student who was accused of bullying her daughter. This week she was charged with breach of the peace and two counts of threatening.

At the Board of Education meeting, a school official said teachers held an assembly for students in that lunch shift to allay their concerns over the incident.

Serio said school security is the district’s number one concern. He said he was still working on upgrading the middle school’s security camera system, which has blind spots.

DeNuzzo commended Serio for the district administration’s response to the incident. He said East Haven parents needed to know that their children will be safe at school.

Palladino said he had talked to the chairman of the Police Commission about stationing a school resource officer (SRO) at the middle school. Unfortunately, the police department is presently understaffed, but the commissioner said the department would consider assigning an SRO at the middle school after the department is back up to full strength.

Several school board members said they thought the board should meet in a closed executive session to discuss school security procedures and how they can be improved. Palladino said he would schedule it soon.

No parents came to the meeting to express their concern or criticism about the incident. Board of Education member Raymond Pompano said that was a good sign, indicating that the town’s parents felt it was an isolated incident and they were satisfied with the school system’s response.

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