Former Danbury High security worker, charged with giving marijuana to students
DANBURY CT June 19 2019 — A former safety advocate at Danbury High School — who worked at the school for about a month before a complaint was filed against him — has been charged with providing marijuana to minors.
Glenn Davis, 41, turned himself in on Friday after learning about the warrant for his arrest, police said Monday.
He is charged with four counts of risk of injury to a child and two counts of distributing marijuana. Davis is the second former safety advocate at the high school to be arrested this year.
Sueanna Lamontagne, who worked as a safety advocate for 13 years, entered an accelerated rehabilitation program in April, which will ultimately dismiss her felony and misdemeanor charges for second-degree breach of peace, disorderly conduct, interfering with an officer and felony assault of public safety or emergency medical personnel following an incident on Feb. 22.
She lost her job after the incident, her attorney has said.
Police opened the investigation that led to Davis’ arrest after receiving a complaint May 8, police said on the department’s Facebook page. The investigation revealed he had provided marijuana to juveniles, including DHS students, while off campus, police said. No other details were provided.
Davis resigned that same day, just weeks after joining the district on April 1, said Kim Thompson, the human resources director for Danbury schools.
Davis was released after posting $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Danbury Superior Court June 25.
Thompson said that with nearly 2,000 employees in the district, it isn’t unusual for a few to be involved with incidents. “It’s coincidental in this case,” she said.
The district has 27 safety advocates, including a lead safety advocate at the high school, though that position and another safety advocate position are currently vacant.
Thompson said the recent arrests haven’t prompted any policy changes because the district already has a high standard for supervision and for the employees. Each candidate already undergoes a thorough background check and other security screenings.
“We want to hold them all to high standards of conduct around kids,” she said.
Online job postings for the vacant safety advocate positions list a high school diploma or equivalent as a requirement and note that “experience with law enforcement, security, or similar (is) preferred.”
Thompson said she was unsure if these vacancies were in connection with the two arrests because it’s a union position and so employees move around a lot. She said they generally have several safety advocate vacancies each year as people leave for other schools or private security jobs.
Each elementary and middle school has one and there are six at the high school. The elementary school positions were added following the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
“We thought it was important to have some security presence at all of the buildings when historically it was only at the high school,” Thompson said.
Unlike their school resource officer counterparts at the high school and some middle schools, safety advocates are not police officers.
Their responsibilities vary between schools but safety advocates are generally responsible for checking the doors to ensure the building is secure, signing visitors in and out and supervising students outside of the classroom.
The state had planned to create a uniform training plan for safety advocates, but without one, local districts are left to conduct the training themselves.
In Danbury, the safety advocates at the lower grades generally get training during professional development days while the high school have more daily training under the lead safety advocate. A safety and security coordinator was also hired this year to help create a more formalized training plan.
Safety advocates should have some security background, either with a private security firm or in law enforcement, but Thomspon said that isn’t always possible in the middle of a school year when the pool of applicants is smaller.
“It’s obviously our first choice,” she said.
News-Times
