Last August, the Valley Central Board of Education approved inter-municipal agreements that would install safety plans in school buildings starting September 2022. An incident at Valley Central High School School last week may have caused further worry.

The agreement includes stationing a police officer in each school building, including Valley Central High School and Middle School, Berea Elementary, East Coldenham Elementary, Walden Elementary, Montgomery Elementary and ALC at Maybrook. On top of this, during the same time, the district appointed Director of Security and Marine Veteran Stephen Ragni. They also approved Social Emotional Support Specialist Nancy Fitzsimmons. Both the school district and town officials were passionate about extended security in school buildings.

Just last week an incident including several fights occurred at a Valley Central High School basketball game. Several units responded, including Town police, State Police, Orange County Sheriff, Village of Montgomery, Walden and Maybrook Police, Towns of Newburgh, Crawford and Wallkill Police and the City of Newburgh Police.

Although many initial reports frightened the public, Montgomery Chief of Police John Hank stated that the actual incident was over and handled rather quickly with no lockdown.

“The incident itself has been dramatically overblown due to reports that a person had a gun,” said Hank. “None of those reports came from someone at the high school.”

The reports he’s referring to are about a third party who made a 911 call stating there was a gunman at the scene. This call was not accurate. The actual incident was a minor skirmish between a couple of spectators, according to Hank.

“The fight started no more than five feet away from a police officer,” said Hank, who also noted that student athletes were moved into locker rooms until they established the reports were false.

There were also two school resource officers, trained event staff and administrators present at the game.

“Overall it was a very simple incident that no one would even know about if it wasn’t about that secondary incident [the phone call],” mentioned Hank.

The Valley Central School District, in a statement released Wednesday at 5 p.m. reported that a knife was recovered from the scene but was not a part of the altercation. The district reported that there were two School Resource Officers, as well as several trained event staff and administrators, including the VCHS Principal, the District’s Athletic Director and an Assistant Superintendent, present during the game. Immediate action was taken to contain the incident and ensure the safety of the athletes and spectators. Other district administrators arrived quickly to the scene, including the Superintendent, Director of Safety and School Business Official. Newburgh Free Academy also had security present.

The Valley Central administration also reported that an individual attending the event yelled “gun” which resulted in the quick response from numerous other law enforcement agencies. This individual later retracted this statement. Additionally, there was an inaccurate call to 911 from a third party that there was a reported gunman at the event

“Any Valley Central students directly involved in the incident will be addressed according to the VC Code of Conduct. On February 1, district leaders, along with the Director of Safety, convened to debrief the incident and reviewed procedures to enhance safety measures,” the Valley Central Administration said in a prepared statement.

Although the incident happening wasn’t great, the school district was able to respond promptly and efficiently. The chief mentioned that the safety plans are working.

“So far this year the feedback we have gotten from the school, the public, and the officers assigned to schools have been absolutely positive,” Hank stated.

According to Hank, the officers are building relationships with students and staff all while learning the school. It’s just been a few months, but the safety plans seem to be working for the school’s protection.