By now it is common knowledge that we had a potential threat which included a suggestion of a “kill list” which was allegedly made by a middle school student. Once we heard of the threat, we began interviewing the students who reported the threat. After working to verify the threat with these students, our school resource officer contacted the state police to interview those who reported this incident with the permission of their parents. Next, they contacted the individual’s father to arrange an interview. It is school policy that any student interviewed by the police will have a parent and a school administrator present.

The state police and the school resource officer worked to learn why this individual may make threats such as these and worked to get an understanding of the individuals state of mind. The student continued to deny such threats were made and ultimately left supervised by a parent. Additional precautions were taken afterward as well as the state police visited the student’s home to ensure there was no access to weapons of any kind. Mental health providers were also involved to determine the individual’s state of mind.

I want to remind you that our students are also “our kids.” We care about them greatly. Their physical and emotional safety is our top priority.  We encourage students to share their safety concerns just as the individuals who initiated this investigation did. We are very proud of the individuals who stepped up to express their concerns. We want our students to feel safe coming to school each day.

If it seems we were slow in sharing information, we hope you understand that this type of situation simply takes a great deal of time. We often need to interview many students, contact their parents, wait for the availability of police, and then begin another set of interviews- often with police and health care professionals. These incidents often result in law enforcement visits to home to ensure there is no access to weapons. On some occasions, these investigations can take multiple days. Rather than share misinformation about an event, we are likely to wait to share information once we are satisfied that we have accurate information to the best of our abilities.

We want you to know their safety is our top priority, and we would never bring your students into school if we felt there was imminent danger. We understand that parents and community members often learn of threats along these lines before we can finish our investigations into what has alleged to have happened. Parents should know that we work to ensure the safety of everyone while the investigation is ongoing. Individuals allegedly responsible for these threats are well supervised and their belongings and lockers are searched. We take every precaution conceivable to ensure our students safety and to respect the rights of those involved. 

 

We hope that you have confidence in or efforts to ensure the safety of our students. Rather than turning to Facebook for answers, we ask that you contact the school. Often, we cannot legally share much information, but we can assure you that we are taking action to ensure the safety of our students.

     -Mr. David Daniels