Pittsfield Public Schools Issues Statement Regarding Tragedy In Texas

It was a somber start to Wednesday's "Slater and Marjo In The Morning" after the nation learned of yet another school shooting. A gunmen took the lives of 19 children and 2 adults on Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Normally on the show we try to keep it light and funny, but how could we not talk about this?

Just yesterday my son Liam was telling me about the "active intruder" drill that was held at his school and I had to tell him that a real active intruder did some very bad things in Texas yesterday. He couldn't believe it.

Superintendent Joseph Curtis sent out an email last night to all parents, guardians, caregivers, and staff of the Pittsfield Public Schools regarding the tragedy.

Below is an excerpt from that email.

Nothing is more important than the safety of our students and staff. Pittsfield Public Schools routinely engages in crisis planning and practicing procedures to minimize risk. As you may be aware, all schools within the PPS are currently participating in active intruder drills to prepare our students and staff for an incident such as occurred today. These drills provide our staff and students with the tools to make instantaneous decisions when faced with an intruder in one of our school buildings.

We are fortunate that Mayor Tyer and other members of city leadership have heavily invested in our school-based security and camera systems. In the event that an intruder enters one of our buildings, these enterprise-level systems are instantly accessible by members of school and district as well as to leaders in the Pittsfield Police Department (in the case of an emergency only). The Pittsfield Public Schools also provides every educator and administrator with a radio that is carried on their person to assist in facilitating instant communication in case of an emergency. These radios connect to all district leadership so support and guidance can be provided as soon as an incident begins. 

The email went to mention that in consideration of the lives lost in Uvalde, Texas that all active intruder drills that were scheduled to take place for the remainder of the week (Taconic, Herberg, Morningside, Conte) would be postponed until June.