Saturday, March 15, 2003 • By BETH BRAVERMAN • The Express-Times

Local school administrators hope they never have to deal with a terror attack on their schools or their students, but they aren't taking any chances.

"We know for a fact that schools are a potential target," said Joseph Lewis, Bethlehem Area School District superintendent. "They have been in other countries."

So, districts throughout the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey have spent the 17 months since Sept. 11, 2001, revising their emergency plans to address the new threat of terrorism.

"We have an emergency-management team that has been working diligently for the past year to develop protocols for virtually every kind of emergency we can project at this time," Lewis said.

He said changing times have caused the district to contemplate not only an explosive or a biochemical attack, but also a sniper attack as well as school intruders or natural disasters.

Lewis said an important part of the schools' emergency plans requires parents to stay calm and trust in the district's decision making. The district issued a letter to parents Wednesday outlining the district's emergency plan.

"I honestly feel we need to be ready," he said. "And I pray to God we don't have to implement any of this. But the safety of our students is paramount to our mission here.

"It is the most important thing I am charged with at this time, their education and their safety. And I have a very dedicated administration and teaching staff that has pledged to maintain that level of safety."

The director of security at Phillipsburg School District has developed crisis-management plans for its schools that address the possibility of a terror attack, said schools Superintendent Gordon Pethick.

Pethick declined to speak specifically about the plan.

"We feel we are in as good a shape as you possible can be in," he said.

Wilson Area School District constantly revises its emergency plan to respond to emerging dangers, said Superintendent Mary Rita Goodman.

According to a Feb. 28 letter to parents, every building in the Wilson district has an emergency sheltering plan to keep all students and staff inside in emergency, procedures for an immediate lockdown of classrooms and evacuation procedures.

The letter said the district has identified several evacuation sites including commercial and public buildings throughout Northampton and neighboring counties. The district would communicate with parents in the event of an emergency via television, radio, telephone and the district Web site.

The district has asked parents to provide the names of authorized friends or family members who could pick up their children from the emergency site, and to provide the district with home or work and cell phone numbers for those individuals.

"I had a faculty meeting to talk about these issues, and I shared with that faculty that I hope we never have to implement these," Goodman said. "We try to balance overreacting, but it's better to be overly planned and overly prepared, because after all, it's our job to protect."

Easton Area School District sent parents a similar letter Wednesday.

The letter said that depending on the emergency, the district's primary objective would be to "deliver our students to their families in a most timely, but safe matter."

If a lockdown of buildings were initiated, the district urged parents not to attempt to pick up children until they have an "all clear" from the district via television, phone calls or e-mail.

The letter also said the district had established undisclosed "safe sites" where the "care and feeding" of children would be addressed in the case of a school evacuation.

Administrators at the Franklin Township School District pay careful attention to the level of alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security, said Superintendent Roger Jinks. He said the district's staff is always on the lookout for unsafe situations and possible dangers to students.

"Effective schools, effective teachers are constantly on the alert for things," he said. "They don't need a national situation to occur to elevate their feelings of concern for the students."

Nazareth Area School District has had both an evacuation and a lockdown procedure in place since the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, but has recently updated them to address the possibility of a terror attack, said Superintendent Victor Lesky.

"The effort back then was for more of an in-school situation," he said. "And now it's more about outside involvement. It's important that schools have this ready to ensure both our parents and our students that at least we are ready to respond."

The Greenwich Township School District has urged parents who work out of the area to assign an alternate place, such as the home of a neighbor or family member, to which a child can report if the school is evacuated, said Superintendent Kevin Brennan. Brennan said the district will use its Web site, e-mail and a phone chain to alert parents of an evacuation.

The district has also made counselors available to any students or staff who need to talk about the pressures of living in a society in which terror attacks at home are possible.

North Warren Regional School District would address terror attacks on an individual basis, said Superintendent John Toleno. He said that depending on the nature of the attack, the district would determine whether to send students home, keep them in school, allow them to observe live news reports of the incident or make counselors available to students.

"Our plans are very broad in nature," Toleno said. "They encompass not only terrorism, but other emergencies that may arise that would cause us to either move students to a different piece of property or lock them in classrooms with staff members or evacuate schools completely."