More than 100 residents are asking the Barrington School Committee to form a “Campus Safety and Readiness Subcommittee” and place a school resource officer in every public school in Barrington, in an effort to prevent tragedies from occurring at local schools. 

Barrington residents Rob Swarts and Sara Catanzaro wrote the letter and nearly 120 residents have signed their names to it. Swarts sent it to the School Committee on Tuesday, April 4. 

“We don’t want our schools to feel like prisons. We simply recognize that the world has changed,” stated the letter. “There are reasonable, practical, and aesthetically pleasing ways to enhance security in our schools to raise campuses to contemporary standards while improving our children’s social and educational experiences.”

The letter stated that school safety must transcend political divides.

“While there is undoubtedly disagreement about how the Rhode Island state government and the federal government should react, this community is uniquely empowered to pursue whatever solutions we feel are right,” stated the letter. 

“To that end, we request that you form a subcommittee on Campus Safety and Readiness to act as the guiding hand we need to prevent such tragedies from shattering our community.”

The letter referenced the recent shooting at a private school in Tennessee and the bogus threats phoned into more than a dozen school districts in Rhode Island, including Barrington. 

The letter asked that a 15-person subcommittee be formed, and that it include members of the School Committee, local law enforcement, members of the public, and experts in the field. 

It asked that campus security audits be conducted, and “they should bring in whatever is required to enhance not just building security, but campus security, operating under the goal that any response to any threat to our schools should be handled before buildings are breached.”

The Barrington School Committee is expected to conduct a “first read” of its “Threat Assessment Policy” during its meeting on Thursday night, April 6.

The policy states that Barrington Public Schools supports “a culture of safety, respect, and emotional support that will diminish the possibility of violence in its schools.” It also establishes “Threat Assessment Teams” and a “Threat Assessment Oversight Committee” as are defined in Rhode Island General Law. 

Part of that committee’s work will include continually reviewing the effectiveness of the threat assessment process throughout the district and at the school level, and recommending changes to regulations and procedures when they are deemed necessary. 

In a followup email to the Barrington Times, Swarts wrote “This is a grassroots initiative with no connection to any group in town… The threat assessment work they're doing is appreciated but is a small fraction of what the petition is requesting.”

Currently, Barrington has a single School Resource Officer who frequents all the local public schools.