While the June 14 Saucon Valley School Board meeting’s agenda was characteristically light for a summer edition, several residents spoke at length about one of the nation’s most burdensome current challenges: Student safety.

Board members Michael Karabin and John Conte joined remotely – and President Dr. Shamim Pakzad and Tracy Magnotta were absent entirely – as Vice President Susan Baxter briskly directed business in a little over 15 minutes, with little action of note aside from some routine personnel matters.

Meanwhile, the second half of the short meeting was dominated by a group of residents – clearly concerned about the recent spate of mass shootings both in and around schools across the country – who say they’ve urged the addition of School Resource Officers to the district’s staff in the past to a mostly-cold reception from the board.

District parent (and Quakertown Area School District teacher) Barry Stoneback spoke first, acknowledging his history of appearances before the board. He said, especially towards the end of the 2021-22 school year, Lower Saucon police have been on campus “almost every day” due to violent incidents or threats.

Stoneback also decried the supposed insufficient frequency of ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) drills across the district, albeit admitting the information he receives from his children “could be wrong.” ALICE drills are comparable to fire drills, though he said the last time a student died in an American academic building blaze was in 1958.

Jennifer Schmell, who helped lead the most recent push for the district to hire an SRO in January 2020, said the next meeting will feature the highly consequential vote on the proposed 2022-23 budget,

Schmell said that if a tax increase is imminent, she “[doesn’t] mind paying more to know that my child is going to be safe in school from now… until he’s a senior.” She noted, somewhat sarcastically, that the board has said Business Manager David Bonenberger ultimately makes expenditure decisions.

Angela McFetridge – who like Stoneback is a district parent, Quakertown teacher, and has spoken in favor of SROs in the past – complained that an unnamed board member said that a permanent presence is unnecessary because “the Hellertown Police Station is right around the corner.”

“Firstly,” McFetridge said, “Lower Saucon [Police Department] services our district, not Hellertown.” She also asked rhetorically about Saucon’s awareness of and readiness for violent incidents and threats, which she claimed were being “swept under the rug.”

Not everybody favored bringing an armed agent onto campus, however. Julie Vautrin of Lower Saucon Township said that a full-time police presence at both last month’s Uvalde, Texas and 2018’s Stoneman-Douglas in Parkland, Florida shootings “didn’t do what they were expected to do.” She added, “I don’t know what the answer is, but I don’t think having a gun in school is the answer.”

Stephen Vautrin, who identified himself as a student in the district, was succinct and clear in his feelings. “Like a student having a gun, I’m also nervous about anyone having a gun at school. It can’t be proven that an SRO is a good guy, but it can be proven that [one] is a bad guy… I definitely think there are other solutions.”