UTICA — Following an Oct. 31 knife assault at Proctor High School, Utica City School District Acting Superintendent Brian Nolan stressed at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting that the safety and security of students, teachers and staff is top priority.

“Your children are entrusted to us and with that honor we have a moral obligation to ensure we keep them from harm’s way,” Nolan said. “This is an assurance the district takes very seriously and makes every attempt to respect.”

That resolve was tested that Halloween day, he said. There were three students involved in that incident, and nobody else was ever threatened, Nolan explained. Regardless, the incident sent fear through the school and community and landed Proctor in the national news spotlight.

Nolan said while viewing the “horrific” video of the attack, they kept asking how a knife could have gotten into the school. He found out that the weapons detection system at Proctor was not designed to detect knives at all but to spot only “weapons of mass casualties” like guns, rifles and machetes.

That deficiency is being addressed with new equipment that is more appropriate for a school building, Nolan said. The district has purchased 10 walk-through metal detection units and 10 X-ray scanners to replace the system. They will be installed as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of the week, he said.

They also increased all security personnel from 29 to 35 hours a week at all schools, Nolan added, and installed 170 new cameras throughout the district, replacing 150 old cameras and adding 20 new camera locations. They enabled a text messaging app as a compliment to the current robocall app to communicate quickly with parents.

Nolan said he invited community leaders from law enforcement, the court system, social services and other interested parties to a planning meeting this Friday to look into “unaffiliated community youth groups” and how to keep their issues from spilling over into the school buildings.

Representatives from Safe Schools Oneida County are already in the district to offer their counsel. Nolan said he is proposing an increase in staff in all schools to provide engagement counselors to identify who might be members of those unaffiliated community youth groups or who might be thinking about joining.

“While the incident at Proctor was both horrific and reckless, the district will continue its

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efforts to deliver on our obligation which is to provide safe and secure learning environments for all of our students, teachers, staff and our community,” Nolan promised.

Three staff members “took decisive action and placed their own safety at serious risk of injury” to end the incident, Nolan said at the meeting. Proctor physical education teachers Kelli Bikowsky, Brian Koscinski and Carvon Brazier were each called to the front of the audience during the meeting to receive Certifications of Recognition from the school district as well as New York State Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon.

Board President Joseph Hobika Jr. complimented Nolan for taking charge the morning of the incident and leading them forward. The audience gave Nolan a round of applause in response to Hobika’s comments.

The board’s student representative Tha Da Mwee Kyet, a Proctor senior, said she knew the victim and thanked the staff who helped.

Kyet said that even after the weapons detection equipment was installed last year she felt security wasn’t taken as seriously as it could have been. She asked Nolan and the board how seriously security is being taken right now and if it will be guaranteed for the students.

“That’s a question that I can’t give 100% guarantee to because you just never know,” Nolan replied. “But what we try to do is create a climate and culture where the kids feel secure, where they have a relationship with an adult, where if they see something or hear something or know something they will feel confident they can go to someone who is going to be discreet and take that information and help us out.”

He admitted he wished he could say it never happen again but he couldn’t. Security will be a top priority, he promised.

“I can assure you we are going to do everything we possibly can to prevent it,” Nolan said.