I was contacted by a reader who is furious about the recent e-mail they received from the Burnsville School District regarding a bomb threat that was discovered after the school day ended on Friday May 15th. This reader feels strongly that a more timely response was necessary and I believe that the district did everything it could to avoid answering parent questions the day before the threat was supposed to be carried out.
I have archived a copy of the letter in PDF format for you to read here and I have copied the relevant parts below:
I am writing to provide you information on a situation that occurred at Nicollet on Friday, May 15. After the student day, staff spotted graffiti in one of our restrooms that threatened a bomb on Tuesday so the Burnsville Police Department was contacted immediately.
Officer Senne, the Nicollet Resource Officer, coordinated an investigation. The police department collected some photographs and we did a search of the school without finding anything unusual. All staff members are aware of the incident and continue to watch for suspicious activity.
We work closely with local law enforcement to assist us in evaluating any threat and making sure our schools are safe. We must take all threats seriously since the safety of our students and staff members is always our number one priority.
Threats like this one are disruptive, costly and are against the law. Local law enforcement officials will follow-up on all leads.
Through the course of our conversation via e-mail, this concerned parent raised several good points:
1. Even though the district knew about the threat since Friday, they chose to wait until after the school day nearly ended (3:18 pm) before sending out the notification e-mail. This made it impossible to speak with anyone from the district as everyone had already left for the day (office hours run until 3:30) by the time many received the notification.
2. If you take a look at the original PDF which was sent, the document was sent without any contact information provided, including omission of the name of the school official who penned the letter. At first glance, the parent was concerned that this may have been a hoax.
3. There was no information available on the school’s website nor on the Burnsville PD website. Aside from the vague letter sent in e-mail, no additional information is available to the general public about the perceived threat.
4. A letter was sent home with students, on school letterhead, but it also does not include any contact information aside from the name of the principal.
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I am in 100% agreement with this particular parent that the communications sent out by the school are not only inadequate but irresponsible. It is blatantly obvious that both the Burnsville PD and school officials did not offer the public the information they need to decide whether or not the school is safe for their children in a timely manner. Not only that but they are clearly uninterested in being contacted by parents of children who attend the school.
Now there are a slew of reasons why there may have been a delay in release of the information if it occurred on a weekday but with over 48 hours notice, I really do believe that the school officials could have constructed and sent out a much more informative response and allowed for the public to ask questions about the imminent threat. Honestly, this is a huge blunder that the taxpayers who support the district should take the school and district to task over.
What do you think about the lack of information provided to the parents of students attending Nicollet? Do you believe that the school handled the situation properly in waiting until just minutes before the school offices were closed at 3:30 to send the notification out? Whatever you feel about this situation, please go ahead and comment on as I’m not a parent and I’d like to hear what those of you with children feel about this one.
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May 19th, 2009 at 6:47 am
i have a graduating senior with 12 more days left at BHS. This is the last of 4 kids who made it thru the system here. I am looking forward to his departure.
ISD 191 is in a difficult situation, i think over 70% of the residents of the district do not have children in the system. This type of demographics might work ok in Edina or Minnetonka, but it isnt going to work well in Burnsville. This isnt just a money issue either. If the majority does not have a stake in the system , usually it doesn’t work well.
As to this situation, I am not sure on it. I have a son attending a public university in another state and when something remotely untoward or dangerous happens on or near campus deemed to be a threat, we automatically get a phone call from an automated system within minutes of the situation being reported.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I don’t have children in ISD 191, but I am a taxpayer in it, so I guess I should comment.
I agree with points 2-4 in the original post, and probably 1 as well. The only justification I could see for the delayed notification would be if the LE agencies investigating the threat (I don’t know who besides the BPD would handle this) felt that their investigation would have been compromised by getting word out too soon. I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but if it isn’t, then I don’t think there should have been a delay.
Mulch, I sadly think you are right about a lot of residents not caring about what goes on in ISD 191 (unless their taxes are impacted). I have a few neighbors like that, and even I probably don’t pay as much attention to what goes on as I should be.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:24 am
The school sent out an updated copy of the e-mail, on letterhead, with contact information and their apologies this morning. While I’m certain that many in the district appreciate the update, it still comes several days too late.
This really should have been handled over the weekend and proper information provided to parents in multiple formats early on Monday morning.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Not the first time this sort of thing has happened. I recall a similar incident at the Senior High a few years ago. Parents found out about the issue from live news coverage on a local TV station. Kids were scared, parents (like us) had no idea what was going on.
Lots of ticked-off parents (including me) sent emails, made phone calls, even complained at a school board meeting. I would think 191 would have figured out how to handle these situations by now.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Nope – They handled it just as they should have. Every district, by state statute, has a “Crisis Intervention Plan” which describes, step-by-step the measures that are to be taken in a myriad of situations.
During the time that it could be considered the crisis time, every staff member has more to do that spend that time on the phone, answering questions – many of them stupid questions.
They are charged with the safety of the students – they need time and focus to do just that – what is in the students best interest.
I know that I’ll take heat because I am saying that the parents need to stay out of it, and let the staff members and the police do their job, but that’s the bottom line – Yes, you pay taxes that pay the salary’s of those whose job is it to protect those students – Now you need to get outa the way and let them do their job!
Cheers -
Irving
May 19th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Irving, I actually agree with you to a point. I do however have a couple of caveats.
In this day and age every organization of any size should have someone who can handle PR/Spin/Public release of information. The info the school sent out should have had contact info, and they should have had someone answering the phone and responding to emails. Not providing the contact info, and not assigning this to one person/group actually would create more work, because people would be emailing and calling teachers, adminstrators, etc. This actually takes handling the flow of information out of the schools hands, which is the opposite of what they should be doing, esp if this had turned out to be a real crisis.
My second major concern is the backlash if something had happened and it was later determined that the school had information for hours/days without releasing it. See Virginia Tech if you dont think this is an issue. As a realist, you have to know the age we live in.
As a parent, I dont think I would be able to forgive the school for taking the choice away from me if something had happened in the time frame between finding the threat and releasing the info.
I also dont know if we can determine from the info provided if they took this seriously. I hope they did.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
While I understand the point about the crisis plan they found the threat on Friday. On Monday afternoon, after school had ended and directly prior to the offices closing they sent out a letter with no contact information or name on it. If that is the crisis plan, they may want to rethink it.
While I am certain most teachers have better things to do then answer questions from parents about their child’s safety I also firmly believe the parents have a right to know what is going on in a timely manner. (Really, Monday morning would have made more sense.)
Also, clearly, the Police and teachers had done their job by the time the letter came out, as in the letter it says it had been determined there wasn’t anything unusual and that all staff members were aware and looking out for suspicious behavior. They had the time to focus to do what is in the student’s best interest. So, if everyone in school was aware of the situation, this letter, which is on some level reassuring, could have come out earlier prior to the end of the day and with appropriate contact information.
They even reference the website and email notification in the letter–the very method of notification that came out poorly done. So fine, ISD 191 stick to your crisis plan, but you should probably revise the plan to include contact information and a signature on your letters.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Distributing a late, poorly worded communication on a blank piece of white paper — with no signature or contact information — is part of ISD 191’s step-by-step crisis intervention plan? Niiiice, Irving. You make it sound like Nicollet did parents a favor by reluctantly informing them. There was nothing at all reassuring in that communication – did you even click the link and read it? It looked like a prankster put it together.
If parents have questions – even ones you deem “stupid†– relating to a specific threat of violence in their 13-to-15-year old child’s school ON THE NEXT SCHOOL DAY , let ‘em fly. Isn’t answering the phone the very least the Nicollet staff can do?
May 19th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Something I don’t think has been mentioned – one of the primary motivators for kids that call in these threats is the attention given to the incident. I’m sure there is a very fine line between keeping everyone informed and feeding the shithead’s ego that made the threat. Same theory goes for suicides. A kid kills himself/herself and there is a huge rush of ‘suicide prevention information’ as well as full page tributes in the yearbook and other ‘positive attention.’ Other impressionable kids see this positive attention and make the same poor choice as the original poor bastard.
Sometimes I think you really can’t win in these situations. How many kids would have stayed home if their parents knew about the threat? How many of those parents would have pissed and moaned about ‘yet another vague threat’ and having to find alternative child care etc?
I attended Minneapolis Roosevelt high school and graduated in 1990 (shut up)…Eleven years before 9/11, nine years before the school shooting at Columbine, and five years before the Oklahoma City bombing – all major events that heightened our awareness of emergency preparedness. I lost count of how many bomb threats they actually evacuated us for, not to mention all the threats we heard about AFTER the fact. I guess what I’m trying to say is it would be next to impossible to treat every single incident as highly likely to occur without completely disrupting school frequently. The more time out of school and the more attention given, the more incidents would occur, creating a vicious circle.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Well stated Mrs Marcos, but I dont think it excuses sending out a late and poorly written communication with no contact information.
Again, to control the flow of information, a central point of contact (phone and email) is important. This keeps the event from becoming a circus and people from calling whatever teacher or administrator they can reach.
It does not sound like this was a carefully planned or viable threat. I still think that the ultimate decision on if and when a student should stay home should fall to the parent, and they cant make that decision without more information.
Its as simple as the School saying “We are investigating the threat and while we do not think it warrants closing the school, we think you as a parent should be informed. Please feel free to call or email with questions.”
May 20th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Chad,
Yes, I do agree that the email was lacking some important information. No argument there!