KSD shares key takeaways and guidance following recent alleged threats
Rumors of school-related threats have impacted communities across our region, state and nation over the last couple of weeks. These incidents cause stress for our students and families, as well as our staff. They also disrupt the learning environment. We appreciate our administrators, staff members and local law enforcement partners who swiftly investigate these threats and who work diligently every day to help keep our students safe.
We want to share some important takeaways from our recent experiences and a couple of things that you can do to help. As always, our mutual goals are to help keep everyone safe while ensuring that teaching and learning are uninterrupted.
We will directly notify all parents/guardians when there is a possibility of an elevated risk involving our schools. These messages will be delivered by email and may be accompanied by a text message or phone call, depending on the urgency of the concern. Social media posts are secondary and will only ever be included on our main district accounts.
Our past practice has been to include all student email addresses in our emergency communications. We understand that some parents/guardians were concerned when their students received the message about the alleged threat sent late Wednesday evening, Sept. 11. We have removed student email addresses from the emergency communications list. They will only be notified when there is a severe and immediate risk, such as a tornado warning. We apologize for any undue stress this caused our students and their parents/guardians.
If a neighboring district decides to initiate a status change in response to a risk – a lockdown, for example – and send a notification to their stakeholders, that does not mean that we will follow suit automatically. We will assess risks based on verified facts within KSD and communicate accordingly.
If it’s age-appropriate, we ask that you talk to your student about the seriousness of making a threat. Please help us emphasize to all students that making a threat against a public school whether it occurs on social media, in conversation, as writing on a bathroom wall, or in any other format has serious legal and disciplinary consequences. Issuing a threat via social media, text message, email, or similar means is a federal crime. As a district, we will process all incidents in fulfillment of our district’s policies with support from our Kearney Police Department.
Please help us stop the spread of rumors. Talk to your student about reporting any threatening post or communication to our school staff and police. We will continue to encourage an environment where students, staff, and families feel empowered to report anything that might be suspicious or out of the ordinary; prompt reporting is important in helping us to be proactive in maintaining a safe school environment. If you see a social media threat, please don’t forward or repost it. Instead, take a screenshot and share it with our school administrators and police. Sharing the post makes it harder to find out who started it and slows down the investigation.
Do not seek answers on social media. If you have a question, please contact your school office directly; you can also contact the KSD central office at (816) 628-4116 or communications@ksdr1.net. Anonymous tips can be shared using the Scholastic Crime Stoppers program by calling (816) 474-TIPS or visiting KCCrimeStoppers.com.
Our commitment to you is to do all we can to keep our students and staff safe. Student safety matters most.
