Council pays respects to Newtown victims
By Charley Falkenburg, Special to the Packet
WEST WINDSOR — On behalf of West Windsor, the Township Council paid its respects to the 20 children and six adults that were murdered in Newtown, Conn.
The council started its Dec. 17 meeting with a moment of silence for the victims who were gunned down by 20-year-old Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. Mr. Lanza killed his mother before taking the lives of 26 people and then killing himself.
”My thoughts and prayers go out to families directly impacted by this absolutely horrific tragedy,” said Councilwoman Linda Geevers. “I know how difficult it is to read about this in the newspapers or watch on television — you can’t even imagine how those families are even dealing with this right now.”
The tragedy shook the entire nation, causing a national outpour of sympathy and a movement for stricter gun control laws. As Connecticut continues to cope with its loss, towns everywhere are scrambling to tighten their security measures in their communities and schools.
In the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District, Superintendent Dr. Victoria Kniewel sent out a letter to parents letting them know the district is in an ongoing review of its crisis management plan. The plan aims to ensure each school has procedures to spot potential dangerous situation and react with intervention strategies.
In the letter, Ms. Kniewel said they held at least one fire and security drill each month during school hours during the last two years. Each school must hold a minimum of two annual security drills, which include active shooter, evacuation, non-fire, bomb threat and lockdown. School officials work in tandem with the local law enforcement to hold the drills, which aim to make students and staff more familiar with what to do in case of an emergency.
Ms. Kniewel said the district will continue to coordinate with local emergency responders and update safety and security plans and procedures for drilling.
On Monday, police officers were at the schools when the children arrived, according to Ms. Schmid, the township business administrator. Recently, the police’s tactical response team met with school officials and administrators to review policies and refresh school personnel in emergency protocol.
Ms. Schmid said there would be a similar meeting for the entire school district in the near future.
Councilman George Borek emphasized the importance of getting as much information as possible and use it to fix any safety problems.
”Certainly we can’t be there 100 percent of the time, but there are some things we will learn from this incident,” said Mr. Borek. “As more information becomes available, we take that and learn from it and use it to make our community much safer.”
Like his colleagues, Councilman Bryan Maher had a hard time comprehending such an act. A father of three, he said one of his children is around the same age as the victims.
”It really baffles the mind how someone could do such an atrocity, especially to little kids,” said Mr. Maher. “Surely we’ll search for ways to try and minimize this in the future, but I don’t know if you could ever put a stop to craziness like this.”
He thought certain types of video games and the ease of getting guns might be connected to similar crimes.
Council President Kamal Khanna, whose wife is a physician at a mental institution, looked at it from a psychological perspective.
”One thing she points out is people need a better understanding of who those kinds of people are,” said Mr. Khanna. “You would be amazed at looking at them and how normal they look, but people need to understand what’s going on inside their minds.”
The council president added that he understood it’s the Second Amendment in the Constitution, but hoped something could be done about the gun control issue.
Some of the residents in attendance also gave their condolences to the Connecticut families and thanked council for making remarks on the issue.
Resident Alison Miller also thanked the council members who emphasized the need for tighter security and suggested council create a resolution in support of it.
”We, as a nation, need to revisit the easy access to these weapons of cruel destruction,” said Ms. Miller. “The leaders of the nation will act when they see not just private citizens, but elected officials pushing for this necessary change to cut down on such horrible tragedies.”
Before ending the council member comment period, Mr. Khanna revealed the evening was his last day as council president and that he would not seek another term.
He thanked his colleagues, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, the administrator and Township Attorney Michael Herbert and expressed gratitude for being able to work with two different administrations.
”I tried my best so I could be fair to everyone who wanted to express their opinion, whether it was the public, administration or the council,” said Mr. Khanna. “Of course, you can’t please everyone, but I tried.