WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT?

Beorge Gush May 15, 2012 at 05:05 pm

You're more than welcome to use your money to fund a project that'll provide an email server, and dedciated business class internet to send emails from. You're also more than welcome to donate your time to create distribution lists including all parents welcome to the idea of email alerts. Of course, you'll also have to dedicate your time to sending the emails out as well. If you think it's an issue, why aren't you doing anything about it?

Disneygirl May 15, 2012 at 05:21 pm

Mr Gush, there is already an e-alert system and they send alerts for other stuff all the time so yes I agree with suspicious over why an alert was never sent out. I happened to read about this on this website at lunch an immediately checked my email and there was nothing. I too did not get a call until 1pm at home and then on my cell which I couldnt listen too because it just kept repeating the press one option over and over even after pressing one 4 times. While my child is not in the high school yet I do agree that I was a little ticked when parents werent notified until 1pm.

Beorge Gush May 15, 2012 at 05:30 pm

If there's an e-alert system in place the school district was neglegent to put it into good use! I stand corrected :) The only other reason that I can logically come up with then, is centennial wanting to avoid the hudreds of parents that'll be responding back in a panic for details. If they do one to one phone calls, those questions can be immideately answered and any fright would be settled. I'm thinking they assumed it was a hoax, and decided immideate notifications were not necessary. If it were not, and they failed to alert parents in a reasonable amount of time... recipe for disaster!

Gina May 15, 2012 at 05:31 pm

Since the threat was cleared in the overnight hours before the school even opened I suspect that is why it was not urgent enough to get the robo-call or e-alert out sooner. We would have gotten an earlier call if school was closed because of it. It didn't take 24 hours as stated above. Dr. Cressman said many times that this was in the overnight hours, very, very early morning. Would anyone want a robo-call at 5am saying there was a threat but the school is cleared? People would be complaining about that, too. They didn't want pandemonium for a non-issue that was already cleared. The kids were told in a calm fashion. School would never have opened if it was serious. How many parents would have freaked and kept their kids home and had them scared to death? I think this was handled appropriately for what it was. Warminster Police cleared the school HOURS before school started. They already had a person of interest. End of story.

Jill Metzger May 17, 2012 at 01:37 pm

I read about the bomb threat on the district website on Monday morning. I was surprised that they did not send out an e-alert - just as information - i get e-alerts for everything else - including the 4 i got yesterday about the Centennial Education Foundation and making donations to teachers etc.. as end of the year gifts. I would much rather get an e-alert about important stuff going on in the schools!!

Part of the Solution May 17, 2012 at 03:32 pm

Gina, I would agree with you. The other thing to consider, is that it is possible the police advised the district not to say anything during their investigation. I trust that if it had not been safe, our police would have shut down the school. Once the school was delcared safe, I am sure Dr. Cressman followed the advice of the police on advising parents and students. My child is a student at the high school, and while I don't understand why an e-alert did not go out, I did get 3 phone calls (yes all around 1pm) - first on my work phone, then on my home phone, then on my cell phone, and my husband received a call on his cell phone as well. Since the district website and the letter that came home indicates an e-alert was sent out, I suspect that there was a problem with the e-alert system that day.

jennifer Gin May 18, 2012 at 07:39 pm

It was determined early on during the police investigation that this was a hoax. No need to wake parents up in the middle of the night to tell them that there was nothing. I am sure the school district follwed all procedures appropriately. It would be nice if the public would give the school board a break once and a while and compliment their efforts instead of contstantly insulting their intelligence.

Skr May 19, 2012 at 03:30 pm

I have to agree with Gin. Surely, as parents we want to be able to trust our schools and law enforcement professionals to keep safety as a priority for our children, I believe we have that in our community. So, a thank you to all involved in being expedient on solving this hoax without throwing our community into a tale spin of unnecessary worry.

Jennifer E. Cressman, Ph.D. May 24, 2012 at 03:12 pm

To provide clarification in terms of chronology, the bomb threat was made at 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, May 14. I was alerted to the threat at 1:00 a.m. at which time I immediately began working with the Warminster Police. The Warminster police worked extremely quickly to identify a person of interest and were at that person's home by 3:45 a.m. I was in constant communication with the police throughout the early morning and present at the District Office by 4:00 a.m. By 5:00 a.m., the police and I made the joint decision that the threat was unfounded, and it was safe, beyond a doubt, to open WTHS. I met with the administration at 6:30 a.m. and the faculty at 7:10 a.m. We decided that it was best to inform families and sent an e-alert at 7:30 a.m. that a threat had been made, but was unfounded, and that everyone was safe. As the morning progressed, it became clear that many parents had not received the e-alert which was why I put the automatic call feature into use at 1:00 p.m. A letter was sent home in paper form to families on Monday afternoon and posted to the District and WTHS website. I am a great believer in terms of protocols of always conducting an assessment of how critical events are handled once an emergency has ended so that we might continuously improve. It became clear that there was a failure within our e-alert system, and we have been working with our provider to ensure that it is fully operational in future. Jenny Cressman, Superintendent of Schools