The arrest of a man accused of stalking a student at State College High School has school officials taking a fresh look at campus security. New security measures will be in force when classes resume this fall.
Last week, David Adewumi, 25, was charged with misdemeanor stalking and summary harassment, according to court documents. He was arraigned before Centre County District Judge Leslie Dutchcot on $50,000 bail.
School superintendent Bob O’Donnell issued as statement Friday saying, “The safety and security of our students is very important. Both the facility features and management procedures for each of our 14 school buildings have been scrutinized this past year through an external audit conducted by security and safety experts.” Those experts included police and emergency management officials.
As a result, when classes resume on August 27 high school buildings will be locked down during classes. The number of entryways will be restricted. All visitors must report to the main office, sign in and get an identification tag.
O’Donnell says, “When teachers and students are in their respective classrooms, we want our school community to understand that our facility is secured and does not permit anyone into the buildings who should not be present.
“Although this might seem to be a simple solution to the average person, doing so with a campus model (two buildings with a street
between them) is more complex than meets the eye.”
As far as the stalking incident is concerned, O’Donnell’s statements says, “In this instance, our high school’s visitor protocols were not followed … the unauthorized visitor did visit the victim’s classroom for approximately 10-15 minutes on one instance in January of 2013.
“Our investigation includes multiple interviews with the student victim and her parent … We are aware of several other unauthorized visits by this individual.
“I am disappointed to share this type of update with you. We did make a mistake in allowing this person to be in our school without following our required protocols.”
Adewumi is listed as a Penn State undergraduate student majoring in Spanish and in 2010, co-founded Innodblue, a student-run entrepreneurial group.
