Last night the Milton School Administration and Milton Police Department co-hosted a forum to discuss the recent incidents at Milton High School. Chief Wells, Superintendent Gormley and MHS Principal Dr. Drottar described what had happened, what was done and answered questions from the audience.

Chief Wells described the incidents and what was found. The first was March 16th when a shotgun shell was found on the grounds of the school. The other 2 occurred this week. Handgun rounds were found first in a stairwell on Tuesday and yesterday in a bathroom. The ammo was for three different guns. All the ammo was live “and could have been bought last week,” according to Wells.

Wells emphasized several times that the police and administration “take the safety of your children very seriously.” The primary job of the police is protecting life from the very youngest to the very oldest. “I will tell you, everything they (school and police staff) do is on the behalf of your children.”

Chief Wells said the investigation is ongoing and would not speak to tactics. He did say that they believe that the individual is internal to the school. When questioned by a student as to why teachers were not included, he said, “I didn’t say that.”

He also spoke to the cost of the operations which will likely exceed $20,000. This prompted a question from the audience as to what would happen, “when the spirit is willing but the budget is weak.”  That will not be an issue Wells confirmed.

A good number of the questions and concerns voiced by parents concerned timely communication. A couple faulted the authorities for the time it took to inform parents. One parent in particular kept pressing the issue to the point where others in the audience asked to move on. Wells became slightly prickly on the issue. He mentioned that he had called the Ledger to challenge their publishing a poll in which they asked parents if the response had been timely. “No one was hurt and no one was harmed and that was our goal.” Securing a facility the size of the high school with the size of its population is not a small undertaking. Deploying forty officers, trained dogs etc. takes some time. “You can only handle what you can safely, tactically handle.” He also said the measures they took were deliberate, by design and specifically intended “not to be predictable.”

Different strategies for ensuring safety going forward were discussed including metal detectors and video surveillance. The Chief favors the latter and strongly discourages the former. “This is your school. I don’t want it to become my school.” He encouraged parents “to be your own detective.”

The Superintendent and Chief stood together. One of them (it could have been either) said, “We are in charge and we take total responsibility.”

One parent prefaced his question by saying, “Thank you.” It was greeted with applause from the audience.

following is most recent coverage of the meeting from NECN