{"id":15587,"date":"2019-11-15T03:39:34","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T08:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=15587"},"modified":"2019-11-15T03:39:34","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T08:39:34","slug":"brick-school-board-members-grilled-on-security-after-shooting-near-bmhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2019\/11\/brick-school-board-members-grilled-on-security-after-shooting-near-bmhs\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick School Board Members Grilled on Security After Shooting Near BMHS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A parent questions Brick school officials over security measures. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

How did a student who was just involved in a shooting manage to re-enter Brick Memorial High School?<\/p>\n

That was the question several residents asked Brick Township school board members at a meeting Thursday night, following the shooting of a student Oct. 24 on Lanes Mill Road, adjacent to the school. Two juveniles, aged 17 and 16, have been charged in the case. One was arrested in Asbury Park, but the suspects\u2019 details, including their names and hometowns, have not been divulged due to their age. Both were lodged, at least initially, in juvenile detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did that student get back into a locked school?\u201d one parent asked.<\/p>\n

Susan McNamara, Director of Planning, Research and Evaluation for the district, said a student let the shooting victim and another student inside after the incident and \u201cimmediately\u201d reported it to a teacher, who called 911. Police have said a crossing guard called 911.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students who returned to the school, returned to the school for safety,\u201d said McNamara. \u201cThey were allowed back into the building by one of their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNamara said it was important to note that the school was not in any lockdown condition when the students were allowed back inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went into lockdown because of the reason the children came back into the building,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Board President Stephanie Wohlrab added that, at the time of the incident, students remained in the building, and were heading in and out of its doors, due to after school activities since the school had already been dismissed for the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were going in and out for sporting activities; the door was locked and a student opened it,\u201d McNamara would go on to explain. \u201cI would think that it would be the empathetic thing to do if they saw their friend was injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer from officials did not satisfy all in the room, including a parent who asked whether the district was investigating any potential links between the shooting and a gang presence in the high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour protocol allowed a student to open the door and let another student in,\u201d said resident Vic Fanelli. \u201cI\u2019m glad none of my children of grandchildren go to school here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another parent focused in on the gang issue, as rumors have swirled that the shooting \u2013 which was minor in nature \u2013 could have had ties to groups who commit violent acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there any investigation into gangs?\u201d asked one parent.<\/p>\n

District officials were mum on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cGang affiliation is a private pupil matter and we cannot comment on any investigation into that,\u201d said Benjamin Montenegro, the district\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

Sean Cranston, the district\u2019s acting superintendent, defended the district\u2019s communication policies in the wake of the incident. A message was sent out to parents using BlackBoard, which can produce a text alert. Parents, however, must be signed up to use the service. He also said that it was determined that students on buses who reside in the area near where the shooting took place should not have been dropped off at their homes, but rather bused to a location that was known to be safe and guarded by police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police is (sic) all over this,\u201d Board President Stephanie Wohlrab said, adding that security consultants have recommended the district \u201charden\u201d its entrance and egress points.<\/p>\n

A ballot measure<\/a> that asked taxpayers to fund a portion of $12.5 million in security upgrades for the district was defeated last year \u2013 first by a margin of 39 votes, which was ultimately whittled down to 23 votes.<\/p>\n

It is unknown if the district will push forward with another referendum proposal in the future, however Wohlrab said the district is continually pursuing grant funding for security upgrades.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How did a student who was just involved in a shooting manage to re-enter Brick Memorial High School? That was the question several residents asked Brick Township school board members at a meeting Thursday night, following the shooting of a student Oct. 24 on Lanes Mill Road, adjacent to the school. Two juveniles, aged 17 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[211,210,24,3240,1395],"class_list":["post-15587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-bmhs","tag-brick-memorial-high-school","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-school-security","tag-shooting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_7273-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-43p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}