Numerous parents and staff at the South Orange school, which also serves Maplewood students, sounded off to the board members on the June 6 event, which also revealed that there was no direct contact to South Orange police when the Code Red occurred.
"What is unacceptable is that the police did not respond until contacted by a member of staff," Superintendent Brian Osborne said during his report on the incident. "A miscommunication about a call button. We need to get to the bottom of exactly why that was."
Marshall is a K-2 school in South Orange whose students later attend Jefferson School for grades 3-5 in Maplewood. Its students come from both communities.
After Osborne addressed the issue, many parents and staff spoke out in anger about the incident, which some said left children crying and afraid for up to 45 minutes.
Most were also concerned that even though the Code Red was a false alarm, its activation should have automatically alerted South Orange police. But it did not.
Staff said the response time was more than 10 minutes for police to arrive and the atmosphere in the school during that time was just short of chaos.
One staffer said it "raised the emotional response and fear of staff members and children." Another Marshall School teacher added, “It is very disheartening and upsetting to know that the people who were in charge of us do not know how to reach out.”
Susan
Parker, a resident, said, “it is my
opinion that the superintendent, the Board of Education and the entire school system
have failed” students and staff. Another added, “there seems to be a very relaxed approach in our district” to security issues.
For one Marshall School teacher, it was “an
oversight of epic proportions ... that could have resulted in loss of human
life," while another said, “the
deplorable reaction of the board of education..is to say disturbing is mild.”
Then there is parent Walter
Fields, who added, “I do
believe its deplorable, it is unacceptable and you should be ashamed of
yourselves.”
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