Students in Highland Park are returning to school with worries, grief and a desire to get back to normal life more than a month after a gunman killed seven people at the city's Fourth of July parade.
Stephanie Diaz, 16, a Highland Park High School junior, sits among messages left at the downtown memorial on Aug. 16, 2022, after the Fourth of July parade shooting.
The local grade school district, which starts classes Aug. 24, is taking a similar approach after a summer of apprehension. With school about to begin, Highland Park-area parents offered differing opinions on the local schools’ security precautions. ”We trust the people who are responsible for the school district,” he said. “We just want to make sure they do something more tangible when it comes to securing the buildings to deter potential shooters. At this point, most of us think it’s not if is going to happen but when.”
Teacher Miriam Schuman sets up her sixth and seventh grade classroom at Northwood Middle School on Aug. 16, 2022. Marty Esgar, president of the District 113 Education Association, a teachers union that covers Highland Park and Deerfield high schools, said his members are concerned about students afflicted by a confluence of stressors — first the pandemic, then the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and finally the mass shooting in Highland Park.
Lubelfeld told parents Aug. 12 that the district has been and continues to “align our safety and security and mental health practices based upon what experts tell us, based upon what specialists report to us and based upon evidence and research.” Some security measures were taken last year. The district spent approximately $1.6 million in the 2021-2022 school year, including upgrades for visitor management standardization, door access changes, intercom public address upgrades and new and expanded use of security cameras, according to Lubelfeld, and it already has alarm boxes throughout schools which students or staff can pull to call police.
All 10 schools in District 112 will now have at least one full-time social worker, not one shared between multiple campuses, and Lubelfeld said there are just under 30 employees dedicated to mental health throughout the district. He added that Assistant Superintendent Holly Colin is leading a behavioral assessment team for the district.Dr. Scott Poland, a psychologist and school crisis expert at Nova Southeastern University, talked with teachers in District 113 this week.
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