Taking a hard look at security Task force advises schools to hold drills, create response plan. Tuesday, October 16, 2007 • By Trish G. Graber • The Express-Times TRENTON | After a yearlong look at school security, a state task force issued recommendations Monday aimed at better preparing New Jersey K-12 schools for emergencies and improving response efforts. The School Security Task Force recommendations -- which include increased training and coordination -- come in the sixth week of the school year in New Jersey, where the number of bomb threats to schools have exceeded one per day, according to state officials. "That's unacceptable," said New Jersey Homeland Security Director Richard Canas, the task force chairman. "We need to figure out why we're seeing more of these." Two bomb threats were reported Monday in Passaic County, Canas said, and a chlorine bomb, described as an "accelerant," was found on a school bus in Warren County late last week. Canas said it is unclear whether the number of incidents in the state is high or low because the state had not compiled that kind of data before this year. Among the recommendations made public Monday, the task force issued guidelines, or "best practices," for how law enforcement and school officials should prepare for and respond to emergencies. The task force said schools should hold regular drills to practice response to active shooters and bomb threats, and regularly exercise plans for emergency evacuations and lockdowns. The group also said teachers and administrators should know their roles in the response plans. The recommendations of the School Security Task Force -- some of which were implemented at the beginning of the school year -- follow a yearlong look at K-12 school security in New Jersey. Gov. Jon S. Corzine created the group last October in response to events that made national headlines, including the Columbine High School massacre and the Amish schoolhouse murders in Pennsylvania. Susan Martz, director of the Office of Educational Support Services and a task force member, said parents should know that work is taking place behind the scenes so that school and law enforcement officials are prepared. "I think that it's important that parents know that schools are taking action," she said. Trish Graber is Trenton correspondent for The Express-Times. She can be reached at 609-292-5154.