MANTEO, N.C. — For Manteo Elementary School parents, the past two weeks have left them shaken and concerned. On Nov. 13, a trespassing incident occurred at the school. On Tuesday night, Dare County Schools leaders addressed the situation with Superintendent Steve Basnight saying they are committed to restoring confidence in school safety.
"If any person can walk into an elementary school unnoticed, trigger a bomb sniffing dog and walk out freely with no lockdown, then the system is not just broken, it is shattered," said Christie Baer, a parent of an MES student.
"Recent events have shaken the sense of safety and the trust our families place in us, we are committed to responding swiftly, transparently and decisively to restore that confidence," said Basnight.
Concerned parents and neighbors packed the room Tuesday night at a Dare County School Board meeting addressing the Manteo Elementary School trespassing incident on Nov. 13 where 37-year-old Illya Stepanenko was arrested and charged with trespassing.
That arrest came hours after an earlier interaction with the school resource officer outside the building led to a review of the security camera footage and confirmed Stepanenko had also been inside the school. Stepanenko was identified and arrested at the Dare County Justice Center about two miles from the school about three hours after he'd been inside. School leaders say he was let into the school through a side door, but aren't sharing who let him inside. He spent about 44 minutes inside the school, the majority of the time in two staff bathrooms and a short time in a school hallway.
"This man entered the elementary school building and was inside for 44 minutes. That is nearly an hour where no one, no staff member, no administrator, no SRO recognized or reported," said Baer.
Basnight explained why a lockdown was not initiated at the time.
"We discussed the options of a lockdown or building evacuation. Neither of those were initiated for several reasons. One, the individual had left the building before its school administrators were notified. Two, there were multiple law enforcement officers already on site. Three, the amount of time that had passed since the individual left campus when we were notified. Four, the weapons detection dog had already swept the building by that time and had the person still been on school grounds, a lockdown would have been called immediately," said Basnight.
Dare County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight said the school district is already implementing security changes and reviews since the day this happened. Major focuses include visitor access to the schools, building sweeps and additional law enforcement presence. Key points in Basnight's address include:
• Reinforcing building sweeps and security audits throughout the school day in every building.
• Reviewing and controlling building access, limiting who has keys and access for visitors and contractors, to limit access only to those who need it.
• Providing front desk and office personnel with specific questions to use when addressing a potential visitor.
• Beginning the rollout of a new visitor management system to replace the current system in front offices that will not allow anyone other than the students' specified contacts in Infinite Campus to sign them out without authorization.
• Instructing all building principals in no uncertain terms that if anything occurs at their school that causes concern or uncertainty to lock the building down.
• Conducting a staff badge audit across Dare County schools to ensure that staff adhere to board policy of wearing their badges.
• Ensuring front office procedures are standardized, including consistent use of the weapons detection system for screening visitors and their belongings.
• Requiring visitors to ring the bell, state their reason for visiting, present a driver's license to sign in and display a printed visitor badge on their person while in the building.
• K-12 parents will no longer be able to walk their students to class. Also considering not allowing parents and visitors to join students at lunch.
• Dare County Sheriff's Office has increased the number of officers on each campus throughout the day and is conducting patrols in and around schools overnight, including getting out of vehicles and walking up and checking windows and doors.
"Building security, by its very nature is not designed to be convenient. It's designed to make it more difficult to access our students, our staff and our buildings. We have no desire to make this convenient. I do not want any of our staff to ever have to look a mama or a daddy in the eyes and explain how they made a decision to compromise all of our security," said Basnight.
Parents who spoke at the meeting had mixed feelings about moving forward.
"This should no longer be a moment of criticism, but one of care and construction going forward by building a school that's safe for everyone," said one parent.
"I do know that actions do take a little time, and I feel that the administration at Manteo Elementary School is doing everything that they can to put it in place. They have children, they're people just like we are. My faith is in probably the administration of Manteo Elementary now, not the Board of Ed or the superintendent," said Baer.
The Dare County Board of Education did not comment on the matter at the meeting. But afterward, I spoke to board member Justin Bateman off camera who shared this about Basnight and the administration.
"Were there failures? Yes. Are we making excuses? Absolutely not. But I can promise you that that gentleman over there (Basnight), the administration, is going to work their butts off to try and ensure that this never happens again."
Basnight closed his address with this.
"We're aligning all of our practices with district safety and security policies and partnering with outside agencies, including enacting recommendations from our security audits and outside consultants to meet the highest safety standards. I will say this again, school security is not someone else's job, it's all of our jobs. We will continue to collaborate with staff and families and the community, because our ultimate goal is to ensure safe, secure schools where students can learn and thrive," said Basnight.
Dare County Schools is also collaborating with agencies like the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools, North Carolina Department of Public Safety and North Carolina Division of Homeland Security.
