Regional forum focuses on gun laws, school safety

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BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS

WESTWOOD, N.J.—An estimated 150 people turned out to Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi’s regional roundtable, Gun Laws and School Safety in New Jersey, at Westwood Community Center March 5, with the polite but sometimes pointed crowd pressing experts on matters of life and death.

Speakers represented the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association, the New Jersey School Boards Association, the New Jersey Association of School Resource Officers, educators, school safety experts, and other members of law enforcement.

Also at the dais were Schepisi’s fellow District 39 Republicans state Sen. Gerald Cardinale and state Assemblyman Robert Auth, both of whom drew jeers and cheers when they answered “maybe” to Ed Murtagh Jr.’s question about arming teachers.

The educators on the panel uniformly said they strongly opposed teachers—or any civilians—bringing guns into the schools, counter to a recent proposal by President Donald Trump that’s being echoed in public comment periods at mayor and council meetings and those of local boards of education.

Hillsdale Police Chief Robert Francaviglia then floated the idea of having armed, off-duty police officers come into the schools as substitute teachers.

That idea, like many ventured over the meeting’s approximately three hours, drew a mixed reaction.

At a glance, local leaders in attendance included Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr., Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali, Harrington Park Mayor Paul A. Hoelscher, Hillsdale Mayor John Ruocco, and Closter Council President Alissa Latner.

Schepisi said the focus of the meeting was “apolitical,” asking the room to consider, “What is it in New Jersey that we are doing right? What is it in New Jersey that we are doing wrong? Where can we improve? How can we work together from a whole host of ideologies to best protect our children?”

Speakers bring experience

Speaking at the roundtable were:

• Patrick Kissane, executive director, past president, and cofounder of the New Jersey Association of School Resource Officers, a nonprofit network of law enforcement officers, school administrators, and school security and safety professionals;
• Daniel Sinclair, president of the New Jersey School Boards Association and past chair of the group’s Training Task Force;
• James M. Santana, superintendent of schools, Northern Valley Regional High School District;
• Julia Guttilla, history teacher and president of the Bergenfield Education Association, representing 475 teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, and bus drivers;
• Debra Kwapniewski, early child educator with 40 years’ experience, and Government Relations Committee member of the Bergen County Education Association;
• Dayna Orlak, social studies teacher at Waldwick High School and president of the Waldwick Education Association;
• Park Ridge Police Chief Joseph Madden, the president of the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association;
• Montvale Police Chief Jeremy Abrams, who chairs the New Jersey State Association of Police Chiefs Legislative Committee and has instructed every level of the DARE program;
• Westwood Police Officer in Charge Lt. Matthew McClutchy;
• Westwood Police Lt. Jay Hutchinson;
• Hillsdale Police Chief Robert Francaviglia, also a former DARE officer;
• Detective Sgt. Adam R. Hampton, Hillsdale’s school resource officer; and
• Eric Endress, CEO, Share 911, a nationwide network for workplace safety.

Arguably the spine of the discussion was a 2015 report that came out of the multi-agency New Jersey School Security Task Force, charged with improving safety in the Garden State’s public schools.

The body’s recommendations include establishing a school safety specialist academy; working to improve response times to emergencies; and school districts working with local law enforcement to develop strategies for the placement of carefully selected and specially trained school resource officers in all school buildings.

It leaves many decisions, including whether to install metal detectors at school entrances, to school districts—and ultimately to taxpayers.

Schepisi, who said her support for guns was informed by her experiences as a victim of violent crime, led by saying she has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association. She said she felt uneasy taking money from the NRA and recently redirected a $500 donation from the group—plus $250 of her own money—to charity.

“I have not sold my soul to any group for any amount of money,” she said.

The problem of gun violence is agonizing. New Jersey is seen as having relatively robust gun laws. According to Giffords Law Center, New Jersey had the fifth lowest number of gun deaths per capita among the states, and the Garden State imports far more crime guns than it exports.

Nevertheless, according to EveryTown as cited in a Feb. 22 Time magazine report, there have been 17 school shootings in 2018 alone, and 290 since 2013, shortly after Sandy Hook, Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.

The incidents range from mass shootings to accidental discharges of firearms to after-hours fights between adults in a school parking lot to suicides, Time said.

Nobody wants that here.

The forum comes weeks after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 were killed and 14 more were hospitalized.

Parents have been speaking out at mayor and council meetings and before boards of education to call for fortifying the schools, restricting access to a single airlock-like entrance, and arming teachers.

Among those killed in Parkland, where armed sheriff’s deputies have been let go over their performance in the crisis, was a student, Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, formerly of Woodcliff Lake.

Lisa Yakomin, a Woodcliff Lake resident, is working with Alyssa’s family to honor her by having bill A764/S365, which requires school buildings to be equipped with emergency lights and panic alarms linked to local law enforcement, amended to call it “Alyssa’s Law.”

The bill passed both houses of the New Jersey Legislature three times with strong bipartisan support but was pocket vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie each time, most recently in January.

The measure is expected to receive a hearing on Monday, March 12 in the Assembly’s Education Committee.

Meanwhile, following Parkland, many student survivors have emerged as leaders of a burgeoning youth movement. A nationwide student walkout is planned for March 14 from 10 to 10:17 a.m.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said he supports the walkout but law enforcement representatives on the panel agreed having students walk out of the schools “into the street” is unsafe.

At least one local school is holding a walk-in, with students evidently planning to take to their gymnasium for the vigil.

Westwood Regional High School students are going to walk out, said student leader Eric Kopp.

Momentum from there will see national marches for gun violence prevention on March 24.

And from there? Nobody knows.
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Wrenching stories from the Westwood forum

One woman, Jennifer Gonzales of Hillsdale, sat in the front row clutching a framed, painted portrait of her late son, Jack Gonzales Farrell, a 17-year-old Pascack Valley High School senior who took his own life with his father’s unattended handgun in late 2016.

Jack’s organs were donated, saving others’ lives. His mother said her son’s story—which she described to the panel in wrenching detail as a series of shortcomings in the police, court, and mental health systems—can help save many others.

Panelists listened respectfully, then suggested gun violence has tendrils in American culture, mental health, policing, privacy matters, school funding, parental engagement, gun lobby efforts, and political will.

Before the session started, Gonzales told Pascack Press she wanted to see changes made to laws on parent accountability and children’s access to firearms.

In New Jersey, parents are accountable if the child is 15 or younger at the time of an incident. Gonzales wants that raised to at least 18.

She said she’s been in touch with Schepisi on the proposal, and the assemblywoman has given her reason to hope for the best.

Meredith Kates, a Hillsdale Democrat and chair of that town’s Environmental Commission and member of its Planning Board, is a middle school math specialist.

She told Pascack Press her work in a Republican-led government had left her feeling positive about bipartisan efforts.

“As a teacher, this is our daily lives now. Instead of teaching we’re dealing with shepherding children through horrific emotions and this is part of their daily lives,” she said before the session started.

“The children say daily, why are there so many guns? Why don’t people care? What are we doing? I have to be here. I have to hear this,” Kates added of the forum.

She said of conducting active shooter drills with 10-year-olds that she sees anxiety changing children’s lives.

“They shouldn’t have to be going through this with no vehicle to console them, reassure them it’s going to get better, or empower them. There’s nothing to grab onto to give them hope about it aside from these students in Florida and how they’re speaking out,” she said.

Brady Campaign coordinator says event was ‘well meaning’

Dwight Panozzo, direct action coordinator for the Brady Campaign in Bergen County and New Jersey, and the founder of Gays Against Guns New Jersey, told Pascack Press on Feb. 6 he thought the event was “very well meaning on Holly’s part” but had too many speakers.

Panozzo criticized Cardinale, who said all the solutions should be evidence-based, and Auth, who proposed teachers be given expensive two-way radios.

“I wanted to hold up my cell phone and just shout out, ‘All they need to do is call 9-1-1!’” Panozzo said.

He also dinged Schepisi’s voting record, calling her “the enemy of the good because she favors the perfect. She always says she can’t vote for this or that bill because it’s not good enough,” Panozzo said.

Overall, he said, “We’re very fortunate to be blessed in New Jersey with lots of good gun laws. Obviously there are some holes. Even Holly was working hard last night to fill up some of those holes. I get that.”