Des Plaines Police, School Districts React to Newtown Shootings

Des Plaines police have been in communication with local school districts regarding safety plans following the shootings in Newtown, CT, Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner told city council members at a meeting Monday.

“We’ve reached out this morning to all the district superintendents, both in the lower grades and the high school, to sit down and review all the school safety plans, and to consider doing training inside the schools either over the winter break or on weekends in the coming months to ensure that we not only have completely upgraded floor plans on all the schools, but that we also have familiarity by all the first responders to, God forbid we have to respond to a school for a situation,” Kushner said.

Police responded on Friday by adding random checks at the schools to patrol officers’ duties, Kushner said.

“What we’ve done, effective late Friday, we gave direction to all the patrol commanders, especially guys in the afternoons, that they would have their officers make random checks at all the schools, high visibility on their beats, different times during the day,” Kushner said. “That’s an immediate measure.”

Kushner said, secondly, school resource officers in the schools were told to be extra-vigilant.

Dr. Jane Westerhold, superintendent of Community Consolidated School District 62, released a statement following the Newtown shootings, which is posted on the district’s website.

“While there is no plan that can totally prevent a random act of senseless violence like this, District 62 has a school safety plan in place that has been reviewed by the Des Plaines Police Department and practiced by our staff,” Westerhold stated. “There always are lessons learned from each incident and as those emerge, the District’s plan will be reviewed to implement those lessons learned as appropriate.”

and other local school districts also made public statements regarding safety following the Newtown shootings.

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