Fear and anxiety over school shootings is understandably real and has reached as high a level as we’ve ever seen before. In the light of recent events, every community from coast to coast is feeling the same vulnerability to this kind of horrible tragedy. Throughout the nation, school districts are re-examining plans to keep their facilities secure and free from violence. It’s a responsibility that at one time may have seemed easy to fulfill, but not so in today’s environment.
In Somerset, where the possibility of a tragic shooting incident might seem every bit as unlikely as one in Parkland, Florida, plans are being made to ratchet up safety in the town’s schools. Last week, the K-8 School Committee voted to seek an allocation of $252,000 in town funds to increase police presence at four schools, a move that will ultimately require voter approval.
A wise idea? It certainly is. But an unexpected and unnecessary conflict has made its way into the process. Concerned that he and his department have not been sufficiently consulted on the plan for increased law enforcement presence on school campuses, Police Chief George McNeil is making some serious assertions that deserve careful examination.
The chief says he was not sufficiently consulted prior to the committee’s vote, claiming he was alerted after the fact via a late night text message from the chairman, Victor Machado. When told about the chief’s concerns over the zig-zagging line of communication, Machado chose to flex his verbal muscles, stating if the police chief “wants to be a hard-baller, then I can be ten times harder.”
He then gave McNeil a lesson in the town government’s jurisdictional boundaries, reminding him that, as chief, he “runs the police department and we run the schools.”
But Machado wasn’t done yet. He traveled down another dirt road and questioned whether McNeil was up to the task of maintaining school security. “If he feels he’s not capable of doing it, then I have to look at other options. If I have to go to a private security company or the sheriff’s department, then I’ll do that.”
There’s a lot to unpack in these statements, including the obvious evidence that Machado needs to rethink the direction he’s taking this “dialogue.” The urgency of addressing the issue of school gun violence doesn’t justify the confrontational approach he has elected to take.
And Machado and his colleagues on the School Committee may have greatly underestimated the cost of the four new officers. Somerset Finance Director Joseph Bolton calculates the cost at $400,000, not the lesser amount approved by committee vote. McNeil appears to be in agreement with Bolton, taking into account the considerable dollars needed for recruitment, police academy training, and field training of new officers.
If Machado thinks his high-strung rhetoric is a fair response to the urgency of the school safety issue, he needs to pause and take a deep breath. The police department offers a resource that he and his fellow School Committee members quite obviously need. But Machado needs to remember that McNeil is an ally, not an enemy.
For his part, the chief rightly reserves the authority to determine when and how the officers of his department will be deployed. But unfortunately, Machado’s words set up a needless conflict with a governmental partner whose concerns about school safety and security are every bit as genuine as his own.
Ultimately, no matter how well-intentioned Machado, the School Committee, local parents and the community maybe, the safety of the children in Somerset’s schools can best be addressed when O’Neil and the Somerset Police Department play a central and pivotal role in the process.
Mike Moran is a well-known SouthCoast media personality. His column appears in The Herald News every other Thursday. Email him at mikemoranfr@aol.com.