A group of parents of students at Westwood Hills Elementary School has launched a petition on Change.org to request a meeting with Waynesboro Public Schools administration regarding safety issues at the school, as we’re learning troubling details about just how much more tragic the shooting at the school on Wednesday morning could have been.
“We want a clear, detailed account of what security measures have been reviewed or implemented since the shooting, including but not limited to: entry point controls, visitor screening, and lockdown procedures, and a realistic timeline for any further changes,” the first request listed in the petition reads, with #2 detailing “concerns about doors not locking or securing properly.”
“We are asking the district to directly address these concerns: what has been identified as faulty, what temporary measures are in place in the meantime, and a concrete plan and timeline for repair or replacement.”
The second issue raised here relates to something that I’ve heard from two sources: that teachers had brought concerns about faulty door locks in need of repair that were dismissed, with a central office administrator reportedly telling a group of teachers that “we are not going into a deficit over doors.”
ICYMI
- Breaking news: Major police presence at Westwood Hills Elementary School
- Waynesboro: Everything we know at this point about the Westwood Hills shooting
Hearing about the issue with door locks being dismissed as a budget concern against the backdrop of what the people who lived through what happened on Wednesday morning first-hand – the word infuriating comes to mind.
From what we’ve been able to piece together, the shooter, Anthony Ignatiadis-Isabelle, 19, a former student at Westwood Hills – he went to school there for grades K-3 and then fifth grade, with confirmation on that coming from Assistant Superintendent Ryan Barber, in an email to us last night – shot his way through the windows of a locked door to gain entry into the school, then “rattled doors down the hallway” from where he had gained entry, almost certainly trying to get access to the inside of classrooms.
“From what my one girl said, he shot through the door by her classroom where he forced entry, and they had to run to another class close by,” a parent of two students at Westwood Hills wrote in a Facebook post.
Unable to get into a classroom, the shooter proceeded to the library, and according to the account of another Westwood Hills parent, there was a class in the library at the time.
“A teacher had a walkie-talkie that alerted them that there was a gunman in the school. They left the library and were trying to escape down a hallway. They heard the gunman in that hallway headed to the library,” the parent wrote on a Facebook forum.
The next words in this post are chilling.
“They heard every shot. They, thank goodness, didn’t see him or see any blood. They then ran into a safe room.”
Dear God.
A grandmother wrote on a Facebook post that her grandson’s “first words to his mother when she picked him up was, ‘My teacher saved my life.’”
Another post from a parent: “My 6-year-old told me that his teacher said she was going to protect him and keep him safe.”
It seems from these accounts that this wasn’t what we had been sold it to be – a teen breaking into the school so that he could shoot himself in the school library.
We justmissed being the next Sandy Hook, and it’s only because the locks on the doors down the hallway that he shot himself into were the ones that didn’t need replacing.
If he’d shot his way into the school at an entry point leading down another hallway, where the concern over “going into a deficit over doors” could have come into play, well.
ICYMI
- Waynesboro: Shooter was former student at Westwood Hills Elementary School
- Waynesboro: Westwood Hills Elementary School closed Friday, next Tuesday
It shouldn’t take a petition drive to get a meeting for Westwood Hills parents and school system administrators, but here we are.
The safety issues are paramount, obviously, but the effects of what happened on Wednesday are going to be something the kids, teachers, other school staff and parents are going to be living with forever going forward.
“Our children need support processing what happened, whether or not they were at Westwood Hills that day,” the petitioners are also requesting, specifically demanding “a clear, written plan for how the district will help students recover and address trauma or PTSD symptoms stemming from this event, including how it will be communicated to families and staff,” in addition to making a request for “Real Support for Teachers and Staff.”
“Teachers were present for this event and experienced it directly, alongside our children,” the petition goes on. “Many are now being asked to help welcome students back — including hosting events like an ‘ice cream social’ — without having first received tools, training, or support for processing their own experience, let alone guidance on how to recognize and respond to trauma symptoms in their students.”
“Our children spend the majority of their waking hours in these schools,” the petition concludes. “As parents, we deserve to understand — honestly and directly — how our schools are addressing both the physical security failures that put our kids at risk and the emotional toll this event has taken on them. We are not asking for blame. We are asking for partnership, transparency, and a real plan going forward.”
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Chris Graham
