Elmwood Park students and parents unhappy with how school administration handled a student bringing a loaded gun to school attended a school board meeting Wednesday night in River Grove, with residents expressing fear, sadness and anger in aftermath of the incident.
Many of those attending the meeting called for the superintendent of District 401 and Elmwood Park High School leaders to be terminated or resign, opinions that were met with cheers during the meeting.
“I want them to start doing something for change because for years nothing has changed and they’re still not doing anything if this incident has occurred,” said Julia Ciura.
Ciura is an alumni of the school whose sister was there the day of the incident.
While no students were hurt, the miscommunication from the school and board has many concerned about safety. The board admits several mistakes were made.
“We do believe it would have been appropriate to call a lockdown,” said one board member who opened the meeting. “Moving forward, information will be sent out in multiple modalities.”
But admitting mistakes was not enough for those in attendance Wednesday. They wore red in solidarity, with several addressing the board face-to-face, wanting change before it’s too late.
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“There have been a number of explanations given," said one concerned parent, Jeanette Robles. "None that are really satisfactory. But I’m also concerned that one, they’re not taking the proper steps to mitigate this in the future.”
“We should be more of a priority and I think we should have more safety in our schools,” said Robles' daughter Jeanel.
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Calls for the addition of metal detectors received a resounding applause from almost all of the crowd at the meeting. The school board will address all the concerns and give more details about their investigation and plans moving forward when they meet again on April 19.
