COLUMBUS, Ohio — Parents, thankful their kids are OK following a parent suicide and school lockdown at Pickerington Ridgeview Junior High, now have bigger safety questions.
“It was upsetting and frustrating to see that our kids are not protected or safe in school,” said Emmanuel Enoabane, a parent of three. “...The number of shootings or the number of incidents that have happened in schools these days is not OK."
Gary Sigrist, CEO and President of Safeguard Risk Solutions, said the tragedy is that although the death of a student's stepfather has nothing to do with the school, it will negatively impact those who were in the building and parents who heard there was a shooting in their child's school.
Sigrist has experience in both schools and law enforcement, and now is a security consultant for schools.
“In most schools, parents are funneled from the outside directly into the office. There's no metal detector — there shouldn't be metal detectors," he said. "When a parent comes into the school, they are kept in the office, which keeps them away from the majority of students."
He explained that while parents typically don't go through security to get into their child's school, they aren't usually able to come into contact with students.
“When we look at the number of parents who come to school every day for legitimate reasons, who have no ill intent, and it sounds like this person had no ill intent to harm anyone at the school, it sounds like he was in a position where he didn't feel he had a way out,” Sigrist said.