Do we need fire sirens? Parents in North Jersey town say it's making their kids miserable

Parents at Clara E. Coleman Elementary School in Glen Rock wanted the fire siren atop the school silenced.

Too often, they said, learning at the school is randomly interrupted by the loud whine of the alarm, which seems to go off almost every day to call emergency personnel to a problem in town.

Noise levels of 109 decibels have been recorded at the building's entrance and in its playground, according to a report commissioned by the Borough Council from Garden State Environmental Inc., a Glen Rock consulting firm. That’s louder than a jackhammer, noted Jon Hendl, a parent and member of the Coleman Siren Committee, a group formed by residents. The youngest of his five children is in third grade at Coleman.

The siren is so piercing that “when it goes off, teachers have to stop teaching, which disrupts the flow of the lesson," Hendl said. "It is challenging to regain the students' focus and continue.”

After months of advocating, parents are cautiously optimistic they're close to a solution. A little peace and quiet can't come soon enough, they said.

Coleman has 334 students. In a particularly unfortunate twist of fate, it also is home to the school district’s special education programs. In a February survey conducted by the residents' committee, one-third of parents indicated their children have “noise sensory issues," organizers said.

Glen Rock's siren is unique, parents say

Coleman is the only elementary school in Bergen County with a siren on its roof, according to the group, which says the alarm is an unnecessary relic of days gone by. Its wail may have been needed once to gather volunteers at the firehouse. But pagers, emails and mobile phones can now do the trick, they said.

More than 30 Bergen County towns have abandoned such sirens, the group said.

That couldn't be independently verified by The Record and NorthJersey.com. But the scream of fire sirens has been a suburban controversy for years, leading to lawsuits in towns including Englewood Cliffs and Mahwah. Reached this past week, Bergen County Fire Marshal Timothy Ferguson declined to comment about siren protocols or the number of them still in use.

Glen Rock Fire Chief Tom Jennings also declined to comment on what other towns do but said borough officials were trying to reach a compromise.

More: Six fallen NJ firefighters among those to be honored in national ceremony

Why Fire Department needs Coleman

“It doesn't really matter what other towns do," he said in a phone conversation. "We do what's good for the borough of Glen Rock.”

The department also uses phones and pagers to alert firefighters, but neither of those methods is “110%” reliable, the chief said, so he wants the redundancy of a siren.

“I was born and raised in Glen Rock. The elementary school that I went to in Glen Rock had a fire siren on top of it,” Jennings said. “That never disrupted the classroom.”

But Hendl said the survey found that the vast majority of Coleman families have concerns: Ninety-three percent of 230 respondents wanted the siren deactivated, he said.

"I started talking with people and doing research wondering why a siren is even necessary in this day and age,” Hendl said. “I was surprised to find that Glen Rock was an outlier in the whole thing, that we're still using the siren on the school."

Student on spectrum stressed out

The stress is especially potent for Ann Kirova's 6-year-old. Kirova said her daughter is on the autism spectrum and has been particularly disturbed by the random interruptions of the siren’s blare. She struggles to stay calm and concentrate, her mother said.

“She's always had auditory sensory issues. She will cover her ears even when the noise is not that loud. So when it's at this level, it's really disconcerting,” Kirova said.

The siren sits right above the gym, in the same section of the school as its special education classrooms. The gym itself is also used for physical and occupational therapy.

Noise levels in the gym have been measured at 104 decibels. "Any kid who has either developmental delays or they are on the autism spectrum, whenever that siren goes off, they're most certainly in an area where high decibel levels register," Kirova said.

The alarm is one of eight for a 2.5-square-mile town, parents say. Is this one really needed?

Jennings, the fire chief, said school staff members have never approached him about the alarm and that he was unaware of its proximity to special education classes. Schools Superintendent Brett Charleston did not reply to requests for comment.

A compromise in sight?

A solution may be within reach. After The Record and NorthJersey.com contacted the school district and fire chief, Glen Rock Mayor Kristine Morieko sent an email to parents on Sunday.

"We all agree that in the best interests of the students, during the school day (and during the school year), that the siren may have a negative effect," she wrote. "While the principal, teachers and support staff of Coleman have never directly reached out to us, we listened to the parents who spoke, who called and who emailed.

"At 7 a.m., May 9, 2024, a programmable timer will be installed on the current siren," the mayor said. "Monday through Friday, during school hours, the siren will no longer sound. The siren will be silenced between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. September-June."

Hendl welcomed the announcement. "This is a great step in the right direction," he said. But the committee wants to make sure the hours mirror the school day by starting at 7 a.m. and extending to 6:30 p.m., to reflect after-school activities like Little League.

"The deactivation hours need to be fully representative of when children are at school, including Saturdays and when summer educational programs and camps are underway," he said. "Most importantly is for us to ensure that the deactivation of the school siren is enacted as an ordinance or resolution" so it can't be undone in the future.

Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: myers@northjersey.com; Twitter: @myersgene

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Glen Rock NJ parents want to silence fire siren at elementary school