South Allegheny gets $50K in grants for school safety after football game shooting
The new funding is to buy weapons detection systems, metal detectors and ballistic shields.
By JUSTIN VELLUCCI
TribLive
Harrisburg on Wednesday granted $50,000 to the South Allegheny School District to fortify its school-safety efforts, less than two weeks after police said a Pittsburgh teen fired a shot from a stolen gun that wreaked havoc at a high school football game.
South Allegheny received a $25,000 grant to purchase weapons detections systems and a pair of handheld metal detector wands, and $25,000 to buy portable ballistic shields for school police, according to state Reps. Dan Goughnour, D-McKeesport, and John Inglis, D-West Mifflin, and state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin.
The 1,500-student, fourschool district serves residents of Glassport, Liberty, Lincoln and Port Vue in Allegheny County.
Wednesday’s grant announcement followed an Aug. 28 incident at a Friday night game pitting South Allegheny against Elizabeth Forward, where a teen, around 11 p.m., fired a single shot outside South Allegheny’s Gladiator Stadium.
Nobody was injured. A livestream of the game showed spectators fleeing the stadium after the shot was heard.
Liberty police recovered a loaded semi-automatic handgun from the teen’s waistband, Chief Ralph Marsico said at the time. The gun was reported stolen out of Wilkins.
The teen, who authorities identified only as a 17-yearold Pittsburgh Brashear High School student, was charged with reckless endangerment, receiving stolen property and multiple gun counts. Police said he was taken to a juvenile detention center.
The new weapons detection systems are expected to be in place for South Allegheny’s home football game Sept. 18, Superintendent David McDonald said. For this week’s game, South Allegheny will have borrowed detection systems in place from Hempfield Area School District.
“This will allow us to take what we have in place and make it better,” McDonald said in a prepared statement.
Goughnour, a former McKeesport police officer and school director whose legislative district includes part of South Allegheny School District, said addressing school safety is not optional.
“Believe me, these funds don’t come home by accident,” Goughnour said. “Every child deserves a safe learning and extracurricular environment, and every community member deserves the same when they come out to support our extracurricular events.”
“Friday Night Lights is a tradition, and every student should be able to enjoy it, while every family should feel that their kids are safe,” Pisciotano added.
