by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The news is disturbing. It was December, 2012. A 20-year-old maniac went into an elementary school in a Connecticut community, not unlike Wellington, Kans., and started shooting little children and school employees. By the time Adam Lanza was finished he had fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members.

It was a stunning revelation for the country. Here was a school massacre with no apparent motive. At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado 13 years earlier in 1999 there was a motive. The two young men were apparently bullied. The Sandy Hook Elementary massacre just seemed to happened.

The scary thing is, there are no specific reasons why there are school shootings. They are random. Since Sandy Hook there have been 74 school shootings (see map here).

In a tragedy of far different circumstances, an EF5 tornado blew through Moore, Okla. on May 20, 2013 with winds of 210 mph that killed 24 people and 377 others. In its path was Plaza Towers Elementary School. Seven children died. There was no safety room at the building.

The chances of similar events occurring in Wellington will hopefully never come to pass. But it is the fear that something like these events could happen here was the impetus for the school board earlier this year to bring this to the voters, which USD 353 voters will decide on June 24.

The background

When USD 353 voters go to the polls in nine days — unless they plan to advance vote — they will decide whether or not the tax increase is worth the investment of the security and safety rooms along with roofs, a middle school parking lot, an auxiliary gym and other amenities we’ll get to later.

Wellington currently has seven buildings: the Wellington High School, the Wellington Middle School, four elementary schools, and Roosevelt Alternative School.

School patrons went to the polls on three different occasions and eventually passed a $28 million bond election to build a new high school, a refurbished middle school and major renovations to the elementary schools in the early 2000s.

One of the biggest criticisms has been with security and safety rooms “why wasn’t this done then?”

As far as security goes, to be fair, the Columbine massacre took place on April 20, 1999. One could argue that was the first of the modern day mass school shootings that set off a copycat trend which occurred thereafter. Wellington passed the school bond proposal in June, 2001. Perhaps, the thought for mass security measures could have been included in the proposal. But remember at that time, Columbine was an anomaly. It was far from being considered an epidemic.

“It just wasn’t something we thought much about,” said Jackie Berryman, Wellington school board president at a recent board meeting.

Wellington had security measures at the high school in place from the start with security cameras that overlooked the parking lot. But this system, 10 years later, was deemed antiquated because of minimal outside visibility and the board appropriated $32,450 to enhance the security system in 2012 that include 29 new digital security cameras that can pinpoint and record any kind of activity in any part of the parking lot.

Nevertheless, even with the new high school completed in 2003, the building has little safeguards for a gun-wielding intruder. One problem is its circular dimension that makes its easily assessable from various angles. Wellington Assistant Superintendent Larry Roth said most of the doors are locked during the school hour. But there is nothing for an intruder to walk in unsupervised.

In fact that’s the case in all seven USD 353 buildings.

The security proposal

When people enter the high school and middle school, the room of two sets of doors is called a vestibule. These were built primarily as a energy cost-saving device — so you don’t let all the cold air into the main complex during the winter months.

But this little entryway will now be used for security as well. When people enter the high school front entrance they will see a door that will go into the main office to the left.

Now during school days, visitors will go into the first open doors and must directly check into the office which will be expanded. Once in the office visitors will be directed elsewhere. During off hours for basketball practice and games or hauling for exhibits shows, people will still be able to go through the double doors as they have always done.

The same applies with the middle school doors. People must check in to the office first before moving on. Again during the off hours things won’t change much.

Roth said the system will be set up where you would have electronic keys instead of the physical keys we have to day. This electronic system will not be unlike what you have in today’s motels. These cards will be issued to administrators and teachers and others who use the school building on a regular basis.

The security system will also do something else: put the school in immediate lockdown in case there is a threat. Roth said that happened a couple years ago when law enforcement said someone might be coming from the turnpike. The Caldwell School District was in lockdown for a week just recently.

The same security measures for Roosevelt and USD 353 elementary schools are as follows.

The safety rooms

One could argue had Wellington not passed the school bond election in 2001, the bond issue of 2014 would be a whole heck of a lot more expensive.

For when it comes to safety rooms for impending tornadoes, five of the seven building are already equipped with safety rooms.

The two exceptions are Eisenhower Elementary and Roosevelt Alternative School.

The reasons why those buildings weren’t equipped with safety rooms are a matter of contention. But basically it came down to money. Wellington had failed to pass two bond elections and the board at the time were looking at ways to cut the bond proposal before bringing a third proposal to the voters again.

The architect of that bond proposal said that Eisenhower was the most equipped at the time to handle a tornado because of the way it was built. Children could gather in the middle foyer or in the restrooms.

Roosevelt was still a sixth grade center at the time. But the plan was to make the high school at the time into a middle school and that building was to be vacated for other uses to be determined later. At that time, the alternative school was in the building now housing the Santa Fe Museum in south Sellers Park.

As fate would have it, the alternative school eventually moved to Roosevelt. So now comes the need for a safety room.

The Eisenhower safety room, to be located on the east side of the building will be used as a music room said Elementary Principal Kelly Adams and will be isolated enough from the rest of the structure.

The Roosevelt safety room will be used for a teachers resource room.

–––

Part two, which will be featured on Tuesday, will deal with the roof repairs, the auxiliary gymnasium, the middle school parking lot and other amenities.

Follow us on Twitter.