School Security Focus of County Prosecutor Summit

Morris County residents are invited to come, learn and share ideas about making schools safer.

Since the Newtown shootings, school safety has been on the minds of many throughout the nation and here at home. In an effort to generate community discussion on the topic, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office wants to get citizens talking. In partnership with the East Hanover School District, the New Jersey Department of Education and the Morris County Superintendent of Schools, the prosecutor's office is sponsoring a Morris County School Safety and Security Summit. The event is scheduled for next Tuesday, Feb. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy at 500 W. Hanover Ave. in Parsippany. “Community-wide partnerships and efforts that focus on leveraging all of our support systems, both in the educational …

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Newtown Shooting Inspires Local Woman to Help

Substitute teacher launched effort to send survivors and their families to Disney World.

Giants Pay Tribute to Victims of Newtown Shooting

Families, friends of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School usher team onto field.

NORTH JERSEY — More than 200 students from Sandy Hook Elementary School were among 400 people from Newtown, Conn., who formed a tunnel for New York Giants players to run through as they took the field Sunday for their final home game of the 2012 season. A little more than two weeks after a 20-year-old gunman stormed into the Connecticut elementary school and killed 26 people, including 20 children, families, classmates and neighbors of the dead were bused to MetLife Stadium and given tickets to the contest by the Giants. The group of Newtown residents received high-fives and handshakes from the athletes as they entered the field. The students and their families then made a ring around the field, holding hands with Giants and Philadelphia …

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Flight Bombing Victim's Wife Reflects After Newtown Shooting

Montville woman affected has heavy heart for victims of Sandy Hook School massacre.

As the nation reflects on the Sandy Hook School shooting one week after the incident, the wife of a Montville victim of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist bombing said the shooting has invoked similar emotions as to those after the event that took her husband. “Twenty years later, our hearts are still heavy with loss, but the terrorists could not rob us of the love that remains in our hearts for our loved ones that we still hold so dear,” Wendy Sefcik said. “In the wake of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., our nation is once again brought to its knees from an indescribable horror, but with love and kindness families can move forward." On Dec. 1, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb, killing all 259 people …

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Ellen Oxild

5:14 pm on Saturday, December 22, 2012

Wendy Sefcik lost two family members — her first husband in 1988, and her son, T.J., on December 1, 2010. We all mourned T.J. when he lost his life to suicide at age 16, and none of us could imagine the grief a parent must face from such a tragedy. And it happens again and again. But by sharing her story, Wendy gave us the opportunity to learn, ask questions, support each other, and find a way to…   more ›

CT Shooting Prompts Police Presence at Montville Schools

Superintendent said heightened security is 'important on the heels of what happened Friday.'

The police officers standing outside Montville Township Public Schools Monday served not only to protect the students and faculty members inside each building, but to comfort parents outside as well. As students returned to school Monday for the first time since the Sandy Hook School massacre in Newtown, Conn., Superintendent Dr. Paul Fried said the district worked to keep students ingrained in their routines and ensure normalcy. The most noticeable difference, however, was the officers' presence outside. "I think it's important, on the heels of what happened Friday, for us to help everyone feel more secure," Fried said. "We want to help our parents, our childen and our staff feel as secure as possible." Fried said the district is working …

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