March 08, 2007
Thursday

I applaud the parent network to get word out to other parents about this serious situation Schoenbar Middle School was faced with on March 7, 2007. My question is what was the Schoenbar's Principal game plan? What is the school district's plan to deal with a matter like this? Well everyone got to see it first hand. There is no plan. At least we hope they will have a plan now.

I see two problems that happened with this serious situation. The first problem is parents not being notified about this situation by the school or school district. The Schonebar PTA has been doing a good job passing information out by e-mail to its members. This could have been one way of getting information out. PTA could have assisted the school staff in making phone notification. The other way could have been for the School Superintendent to cancel school on Wednesday March 7, 2007.

The second problem is not taking the situation seriously by Schoenbar Middle school, school board, Superintendent and the police department. This is shown in the Deputy Police Chief's comment if correct in the SitNews article, "According to Deputy Police Chief Josh Dossett, an investigation by the Ketchikan Police Department on Wednesday did not find that the written threat was one with an intent to be carried out ". If the information in the article stating the written message in the bathroom said "There would be a shooting at the school March 7" is correct, how can you not take it serious? I could see if the message written was, "Shooting to happen in School" . Then I can see the action taken yesterday and today with the police department at the school and parent notification would be the right course of action. But with a specific date "March 7", has to be taken serious. To safeguard the children of the school, the Superintendent should have cancelled school on March 7, had school staff with the assistants of the police department conduct a school and locker search along with parents notification of the situation would have been the correct response to the situation. Have we not learned anything from Columbine or the Alabama shootings shortly after?

I hope the Superintendent, school board, Schoenbar's Principal and the Deputy Police Chief will hold a Town Meeting with all Schoenbar parents about what has happen and the future school district policy on situations like this. If they don't hold a meeting, I hope the Schoenbar PTA forces a meeting with these folks and works with them on correcting this serious mistake. I hope for the safety of all the kids in the school district, all the schools hold a training day or at a staff meeting to play the ?What If" situation drill to help prepare for future emergencies.

Reggie Reinhardt
Ketchikan, AK




Received March 08, 2007 - Published March 08, 2007

About: "Parent of Schoenbar Student"

 

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