Education Board to consider revising uniform policy

by Krystal Paco

Guam - With the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut and the recent lockdown and cancellation of classes at Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary School, all are on high alert to keep the island's schools safe. Department of Education superintendent Jon Fernandez watched as longtime teacher and concerned stakeholder Franklin Perez made a graphic demonstration to the Guam Education Board this morning.

"You might want to reconsider the policy on uniforms, a representative of the Juvenile Division asked me to show before you a graphic representation of how important this issue is," he said.

Wearing the standard high school uniform of khaki pants, a polo shirt, and a jacket, Perez pulled out items concealed in his pockets and another tucked under his belt. "You wouldn't think that I have anything on me but the point is to look at that uniform policy and reconsider that maybe students should for the safety of all students start tucking their shirts in," he said.  "I have presented to you four weapons that came from my person."

And while the board goes back to reviewing the school uniform policy, Fernandez says students' safety is top priority, especially after recent national and local events. "I think its fair to lump that in with all the other issues we're going to be discussing probably over the coming weeks and months on how we protect our schools this incident that happened in Connecticut has really sparked a lot of discussion with our administrators and our teachers who are responsible for our children and that incident that happened at Ordot-Chalan Pago we actually had an opportunity to immediately test what's been drilled on," he said.

As we've been reporting, the Guam Police Department arrested 50-year-old Rudy Quinata of Umatac Wednesday morning on charges of terrorizing, use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm without id and family violence. Further investigation revealed Quinata did not pose any threat to the school's students or staff, except for one staff member who reported that Quinata allegedly threatened that he would kill her, leading DOE to put the Ordot school on lockdown on Monday and canceling classes for the remainder of the week.

Fernandez adds that Ordot-Chalan Pago Elementary School staff are using today to review active shooter training as well as other schools in the coming weeks.