Incidents of violence at recent high school sports events have safety protocols and even sportsmanship at the forefront of school district policies these days.
New Kensington-Arnold School District, for example, is making attending a sports event, like Friday night football, more like attending school during the day.
The district now prohibits outside food or drink and reentry into a game or event. Students in eighth grade and younger must be accompanied by an adult. And leave the backpacks at home. The district only allows diaper and medical bags or small wristlets, which still will be checked by security.
William Leek, the district’s head of security, said the protocols at events are new, but he’s also pushing for a districtwide mindset shift.
“I want our faculty in the district to have the mindset of safety across the board,” Leek said. “Regardless of your position, everyone is responsible for safety in some capacity.”
He said awareness of surroundings, keeping a vigilant eye and intervening early if something seems suspicious are the ways to prevent an incident both at sporting events and during the school day.
“It’s simple practices like not leaving the door propped open,” he said. “It comes to the individual with the heartbeat to find those areas of vulnerability. (Cameras are) only going to catch so much.”
Protocols across the region
In light of a shot being fired near the gate at South Allegheny School District’s Gladiator Stadium last month, the district is looking to boost safety efforts as well, said Superintendent David McDonald.
A Pittsburgh teenager faces multiple charges in connection to the incident.
Prior to the incident, McDonald said, he felt the stadium was safe. Games had a regular police presence and security at the gate.
“You think you’re doing all the right things and then all of a sudden we had our incident and we’re like ‘OK,’ we went into a mode of what can we do better?” McDonald said.
The district is now adding Opengate weapons detection systems to its stadium, he said.
“We borrowed some Opengate systems from Hempfield (Area School District,)” McDonald said. “We purchased two sets, but they’re just not in yet.”
The Opengate system offers the ability to screen crowds rapidly for weapons without the need for fans to stop and have their purses, bags or personal items searched.
There is also a new policy allowing only diaper or medical bags into games. He said the district also purchased additional lighting for its parking lot and that having security focus on the stadium perimeter is a priority.
“Everybody will be screened,” McDonald said. “We have a separate gate now for people that need to bring in a bag through our main gate, everybody will walk through the Opengate system, and will be screened through that process. We always had a no reentry policy, but what we’re going to do now is really close the gates down at halftime.”
McDonald was proud of the response, he said, from school security officers, the district and local police during and following the August incident.
“Within 30 seconds (they had) two sets of handcuffs on him (and) had the weapon out of his hand,” he said. “Once we had a safe situation, the communication just really kicked into overdrive, where everybody had a job to do and they did it at a really high level.”
The district last week was awarded $50,000 in state grants to purchase a weapons detection system, a pair of handheld metal detector wands and portable ballistic shields for school police.
In Westmoreland County, Hempfield Area School District has taken similar steps over the past few years to secure events and school buildings.
The district recently implemented protocols that only allow clear or mesh bags smaller than 12x12x6 inches. Kindergarten through eighth grade students must enter the stadium with their family. Middle-schoolers are told to sit in the middle school section and elementary kids should remain with a parent or guardian.
Patrons also now go through Opengate weapons detectors, said Superintendent Mark Holtzman.
“It’s not like a metal detector where you have to search everything. They go through, and if it beeps, then we have somebody with a wand on the other side. They’re able to double check that there’s nothing that you know is a problem or weapon related,” Holtzman said.
He said the new systems were just the next step for expanding safety and that eventually the district might try to replace the Opengate systems with AI-powered technology that detects concealed weapons. The district is partnering now with CurvePoint, a company launched by a Carnegie-Mellon scientist, to use the technology at Hempfield Area High School.
Deer Lakes School District also only allows medical or diaper bags or small wristlets for home games — all of which will be inspected — according to the district.
Pittsburgh Public Schools expanded its safety measures at Cupples Stadium on the South Side, where it holds its home football games, about three years ago.
Along with metal detectors, they also began requiring students to have their IDs with them or have a faculty member vouch for them. They also give out wristbands at entry that are a different color each week.
Events that take place at schools across the district also have metal detectors and wand scanning, said Karen Arnold, the district’s director of interscholastic athletics.
“The other piece is that students in (kindergarten to third grade) must be accompanied by someone over the age of 21, and, if that person leaves the stadium, then those students or children must leave with them,” Arnold said.
Students who’ve been suspended are prohibited from sporting events, she said.
The district also tries to prevent friction at the end of games by having fans of the two teams exit on opposite ends of the stadium, Arnold said.
“We try and not have our fans from the opposing sides interact as much as possible. We want them to exit the stadium in opposite directions (and) we have our administrators — we want them to be outside at the end of the game,” Arnold said.
Pittsburgh Public Schools spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the district has been partnering with City of Pittsburgh police for years to coordinate security.
“We always are reviewing … you can never do enough when it comes to safety,” Pugh said. “But making sure students are supervised definitely provides a level of added safety because they’re with a responsible adult (who) can help kids make good decisions.”
Preparedness equals prevention
Gridiron Home, a New Kensington nonprofit that offers leadership and youth sports initiatives, is starting a new “Coach the Coaches” program in hopes of increasing training and preparedness for coaches at the youth sports level.
The program teaches deescalation tactics, how to identify behavioral issues, how to handle crisis situations and how to promote supportive conversations, among other similar goals, said Gridiron Home founder and president Rob Hamilton.
The nonprofit is in the process of setting up a certification process for people who go through the program.
As part of the initiative, Hamilton said they are also working on a mentorship piece of the program to pair new coaches with experienced ones.
The initiative comes on the heels of three coaches being charged following a brawl during a recent youth football game in Carnegie.
“We spend an incredible amount of time teaching children discipline, self-control, teamwork and respect,” Hamilton said in a press release. “But those lessons only work when the adults standing beside them model the same behavior. A coach is one of the most influential people in a young athlete’s life. Coaching has to be about more than knowing the game.”
He said anyone interested in the program should reach out through a form on Gridiron’s website or through the contact information available on the site.
New Kensington-Arnold Athletic Director Joe Skura said good sportsmanship from all sides is expected at games.
“As is the world we live in today, for some, attending a game means yelling at the officials, coaches and maybe even the athletes. This will not be tolerated at our events, and these folks will be asked to leave,” Skura said. “A high school athletic event is not the place for this type of behavior, and we must set an example for the students.”
Faculty preparedness initiatives have been on Leek’s mind.
Leek, the New Ken-Arnold security head, said district recently had an instructional day where he went over what to do in the event of a fire or an active shooter.
He hopes to do a training to teach faculty about Cooper’s Color Code, a method designed by an ex-marine that ranks levels of situational awareness on a color system, he said.
“I’m not expecting anyone to be a subject matter expert in martial arts or anything like that,” Leek said. “Just having that level of when I go to work, ‘what would I do if this were to happen?’ Because I think if we, as a district, could get on board with that, we would just be a whole lot better off.”
People who man the phone for the school day and events, Leek said, have a spreadsheet guideline of protocols and questions to ask if someone calls in a threat.
“Some of those variables you can’t control. It’s how you respond to that. (If) someone calls in a bomb threat. I can’t keep someone from calling that in. But what I can do is have a great response to that bomb threat,” he said.
McDonald said when it comes to safety, it’s best not to get too comfortable.
“It’s unfortunate, but … it’s the world we live in today,” he said. “We’ve always got to be looking ahead and be forward thinking.”
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