One Step Closer to Oceania

Aug 26, 2023

Security Theatre Took Another Aggressive Leap Forward in Berkeley Heights Public Schools This Year

If you have yet to catch up on this issue, the District voted to extend its contract with the Police Department for another five years in a rushed Special Meeting during the Summer. Special meetings are meant to be held for urgent matters or emergencies – the shared agreement was neither. Would it surprise you to know that BOE is not allowed to approve regular bills in the special meeting?

It was that special.

Soon after, this shared agreement was approved by the Town Council.

This week, we received Dr. Varley’s “welcome to school” email and embedded in the many words was the quick reference to “Threat Assessment Teams.” Schools are required to have these teams that continue to push the narrative that children are murderous entities and that mass shootings are just around the corner in every school despite the vast amount of research that contradicts not only this narrative but also our methodology in trying to reduce the already rare occurrences.

For several years, I have advocated for familial oversight over these programs and there has been some progress in this area this year. The BHPD included some essential data in its reporting and created a presentation on these programs and children’s rights this past year. However, what would strengthen this effort is robust familial involvement and oversight – particularly when you think of the potential impact these programs can have on children and families in the short and long term.

It should concern everyone that there is no mention of familial involvement in the development of the “Threat Assessment” teams – while Districts are required to have this in place, they have a good deal of latitude on how it would look.

We are in a moment where parents want to have a more significant say in what is being taught to their children. So why are we shy about asking or engaging in our schools when it comes to discipline or school security? Why are parents apathetic to the District taking control of the narrative here?

There isn’t anything more Orwellian than the wave of security theatre we have descending upon our children in our schools—Threat Assessment Teams, Armed Guards, Terror Drills, Reporting Apps and Files on Behavior that follow kids to college as we struggle to keep teachers, wonder why we have no textbooks and as parents have to subsidize a declining District’s approach with tutors.

Schools should be a safe space for our children to learn from their mistakes, not a place where children are held to standards that adults are not even able to abide by. We are raising children who should be taught to question authority, not storm-troopers. Yet, what is going on in our schools is akin to the first few chapters of a fascist dystopian novel.

If the last three years have taught us anything its that if we are going to have law enforcement present in our schools, they should be stationed in the Superintendent’s office and during Committee Meetings of the Board.

We are in the early stages of this bizarre experiment, and while I am in the minority now, it’s a waiting game for me. I hope that the event(s) that prompt local, state, and federal entities to finally involve familial oversight and accountability over all these police state programs in our schools (or their removal altogether) isn’t that much of a heartbreak – unfortunately, it usually takes something like that to get ideological tribes to reconsider their positions. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” and “how bad will it be”.

But what if there were some check and balance to the guns, badges and bureaucracy surrounding our kids? It might be possible to mitigate the risks associated with these programs by simply allowing families the ability to have a seat at the table in providing oversight and evaluation.

Here are my comments at the most recent Town Council Meeting – I didn’t argue the position that the Council was unable to require oversight (they are) because they already voted on it (I was running late), and they wouldn’t have changed their minds anyway. It’s the same position held five years ago when I asked them to do the same thing.

I can ask the BOE and Superintendent about this again – but she and the BOE Majority are so consumed with everything but the quality of our schools.