It’s the news alert that makes every schoolchild’s heart sink: Another school shooting.
In Pennsylvania, state officials hope to make both public and private schools more secure against violence like school shootings through security and mental health grants. In its first two years, the Shapiro administration has earmarked $275 million for school safety and student mental health, which has been awarded to 1,000 schools statewide.
Students, parents, and administrators at the Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley spoke about receiving the grants at a press conference Thursday with Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Executive Director Mike Pennington.
Mike Pennington, executive director, of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)
“Keeping Pennsylvania students safe and healthy is a top priority of the Shapiro-Davis Administration,” PCCD Executive Director Mike Pennington stated. “Our kids can’t learn if they don’t feel safe within the walls of their school. It was great to hear first-hand from staff, students, parents, and local law enforcement about how the Abrams Hebrew Academy is using this critical funding to support students and make learning environments safer now and in the future.”
Abrams, which serves about 200 students from preschool through 8th grade, received a $75,000 school safety grant. It had gotten a $25,000 grant in October.
“We’re very tense about our lives as Jews. Last year was a miserable year to be a Jew,” said Rabbi Ira Budow, head of school at Abrams. “To see what was going on all over the country was miserable. And so it was my job to provide leadership and to listen to my constituents, my parents. And they were very clear, they not only wanted security, but they wanted professional security.”
“I feel a responsibility here…for everybody. Kids have to come to school. Teachers have to come to school and feel safe.”
“We have security now besides the police,” he said. “They walk around the school all day and outside.”
Parent Sarah Levin said she’s been concerned about bringing her kids to school,l but when she arrived, “I saw a security guard. I realized I didn’t have to be worried about dropping my kids off at school. I knew that the school was under tight security.”
Yardley Police Chief Joseph Kelly III was working in North Jersey on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. He said he saw the aftermath of that horrific attack, and he’s very aware of the dangers Americans still face. Budow dropped by to see him shortly after he began working in Yardley 10 years ag,o and they became friends and partners, Kelly said.
Abrams Hebrew Academy Head of School Rabbi Ira Budow with students Lyla Lubin, Lia Seiden and Kayla Avraham.
Kelly noted that the police department had also received grants from the PCCD for communications equipment, body cameras, and license plate readers. He thanked Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) and Rep. Perry Warren (D-Yardley) for helping with the grants. He added that the police and private security company overlap at the school.
Budow asked three 8th-grade students if they feel secure at school and what they think when they see security guards walking around with guns.
Lia Seiden thanked the police and security.
“For all the time I’ve been here, I’ve never felt more safe,” she said.
“After the year the Jews have had, like with the things on the internet, having a police officer with a gun makes me feel safer. For example, there was a day they were attacking Jewish day schools [Day of Rage] but I still went because I knew there was security here.”
Budow said, “I’m not going to go away. We’re going to be open. For us, as Jewish people, not to go to school is a very sad thing.”
Student Kaylah Avraham said she feels safe now, but on that day, she didn’t come to school. “I was scared,” she said, and her parents didn’t send her. “Now that we have security guards, I feel really safe.”
Debra Goldfarb, director of development, said they were lucky to receive three grants for security, including $75,000 from the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. They plan to enhance physical security, install emergency communications equipment, a panic button and pay for security personnel.
Students and staff also received additional security training.
After the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel, the school didn’t have money in their budget for security personnel, but they had to find it because “our parents insisted on it,” said Goldfarb. “This past year, antisemitism has been awful,” she said.
Arielle Frankston-Morris, executive director of Teach PA thanked state officials for the grants.
“Our organization works with all of the Jewish day schools across the commonwealth, and this type of support is unfortunately needed now more than ever as our communities have had to shoulder much of the financial burden of the heightened antisemitism in this country, and this funding is a big step in mediating this problem,” Franklin-Morris said.
