The latest school shooting thoroughly disgusted Dunkirk Board of Education President Ken Kozlowski.

“I wish we didn’t have to bring it up… it makes me physically ill to even watch the news to see this,” Kozlowski said at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting. “With a country like ours, it shouldn’t be going on.”

Kozlowski sought and received a moment of silence to remember the two students and two teachers killed Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. A 14-year-old boy is charged in the fatal shootings. His father also faces charges related to the homicides, over giving his son the rifle allegedly used in the shootings.

“We’ve all had kids here — we went to school and we never had to worry about this,” Kozlowski said. “And now we’ve got grandkids to worry about. A kid can be fixed, but it’s not a fix that we can do. I’m not going to get too far into it because I’m sure I’d get into trouble.”

A few minutes later, board member Marcus Buchanan wondered if anyone in the room had ideas for preventing school shootings.

“I think Mr. Abbey has done so much with his crew,” said Kozlowski, referring to Timothy Abbey, district buildings and grounds coordinator.

“We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes,” Abbey said, noting consultations with a school safety expert. “(We got) very in-depth on some of the prevention measures. I think we do have some things we can share with you guys on some of the work he did… we have a thorough threat analysis of every single school, (it) basically lays out our posture and things we should be looking at to improve.”

Abbey said the reports from the consultant should be discussed with the board in an executive session.

“A lot of things are being done that we don’t want to say,” Kozlowski said.

Abbey commented on the Sept. 4 shootings, “This particular instance was preventable, there were warning signs… It is on the community to look out for these warning signs and do something about it, that’s what it comes down to.”

Kozlowski said he was comfortable with the district’s relationship with the Dunkirk Police Department, and the safety measures they have taken together.

“I guess my point was, in this country, we shouldn’t have to have these things,” he said. “We should just let ’em be kids, protect our staff and families. This shouldn’t happen.”