Harding School Parents Weigh in on Connecticut Tragedy
DECEMBER 14, 2012- It was a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that took
the lives of nearly two dozen people, mostly elementary school children, leaving
parents devastated including right here at Harding School on Erie's West
side...
"Couldn't imagine how parents felt not knowing where the kid
was and if they were safe. kinda made me wonder what was going on at
Harding," says Matthew Kelly, a parent to a 2nd grader.
Harding parents say a tragedy like this can be hard to
swallow and could shake up a young child... And for father of four William Winkelman
he will use it as a cautionary measure.
"All you can do is try to inform that something has happened
and try to prepare and have them mentally trained for that possibility,"
says William Winkelman.
Matthew Kelley, the father of a 2nd grader at Harding,
says he feels his daughter is safe at school, but it's an incident like this
that makes him think twice.
"They're doing the best and you learn from situations and
learn and I think they've got good security measures here," says Kelly.
But parents also worry about security measures at the school, and
would like to see improvements within the district.
"There needs to be some sort of security measure put in place
where not so much police but they have an inner security, with patrol officers
and school guards," says Winkelman.
Winkelman hopes the district would learn something from
this tragedy and take school security to the next level.
"A lot of schools have guns and metal detectors... Why can't
we take it one step further? "Says Winkelman.
