“Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 11:50 AM
Subject: Rumors of a shooting . . .
Good morning faculty and staff,
Yesterday evening, it was brought to my attention that there was going to be a shooting. . . today. We immediately contacted the District and the police department. “

These are the first two sentences of a communique sent out to faculty and staff after the threatening situation was resolved.

At the end of the day on Friday, parents received a letter stating,

“I’m writing to inform you of a situation that occurred at our school this morning. Let me assure you that your child was safe, and we had a relatively normal day of school.

It came to our attention that several students were talking about rumors of a potentially violent incident taking place at our school today. While we weren’t certain how credible the story was, we always act in the interest of protecting our students.

Before students arrived this morning, police officers and District security officers were already at the school. As soon as students arrived, they were directed straight to their classrooms. The school was briefly put in lock down, while some student belongings were searched by our security team. Security officers didn’t find anything lending credibility to the rumors, and there was no need for further action. Again, please let me reassure you that your child’s safety was never in question.”

Given the violent atmosphere in Rochester, rumors of a shooting should not have be taken lightly. If the situation was serious enough to involve the police, at the very least a robo-call to parents explaining the situation, would have allowed them to decide whether or not to bring their child to school Friday morning. To be perfectly safe, the school should have been closed until the threat was resolved.

Every child’s safety came into question when they were placed in a situation they were unaware of and helpless to control.

As well, the administrator decided to place the safety of the faculty and staff into question by not informing them of the situation until after it was resolved.

Closing the school to save lives or keeping it open to make money, in a child centered system of education there would be no question.

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