Hometown Happenings

Hometown Happenings

Partnering Together to Keep Our Children Safe On the first Anniversary of the tragic Parkland Shooting of February 14, 2018, Chief Ray McCullagh and the Clarkstown Police Department hosted a School Safety Symposium at the Police Department. All the school districts that are located within the Town of Clarkstown were in attendance. The meeting was extremely informative and many ideas and practices were discussed and exchanged.

At the meeting, the police department covered a number of topics and reviewed some of the things they are doing to keep our children safe in school. Chief McCullagh and his team have conducted and are continually conducting security audits of all schools. These audits have driven security upgrades and enhancements across the districts. Chief McCullagh confirmed his commitment to continue to host these joint meetings on a regular basis.

The partnership between the Town, the Police Department and the four school districts is as strong as it has ever been and is frankly a model for how to collaboratively work to keep our community safe. Thank you to all the school districts who participated, for your leadership and for keeping the safety of the students and staff of your schools a top priority. Thanks to the men and women of the Clarkstown Police Department for truly being the best.

In addition to all that the school districts and law enforcement can do to protect the schools physically, we all have a big role to play in being aware of the signs that children and students may be sending us.

We need to listen and look for the signs of distress that out adolescents may be sending to us and their peers. But the foundation of enhancing and ensuring school safety is deterrence. We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and experienced police department working with our local schools to keep our children safe.

It is truly a unique partnership.