50 students stay home Tuesday after Hays High threat; USD 489 to discuss notification

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Parents kept about 50 Hays High School students at home Tuesday out of concerns about an alleged threat at the school.

The school’s enrollment is about 800 students, so this was about 7 percent of the student population.

A 14-year-old student was removed from school on the morning of Monday, Feb. 12, after police were informed about an alleged verbal threat the student made against the school.

The child was placed in detention through Juvenile Services of Northwest Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority, and a child-in-need-of-care case was opened. The student remains in custody outside of the city of Hays, according Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees.

However, information about the threat was not released to the public until Saturday, Feb. 17, after the a deadly school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead.

Between Feb. 12 when the student was removed and Tuesday, Feb. 20, rumors swirled at the school.

On Thursday, Feb. 15, and Friday, Feb. 16, rumors circulated someone had a gun at the high school.

Both Superintendent John Thissen and Principal Marty Straub said these rumors were investigated by law enforcement, and it was determined there was never a firearm at the school.

Further rumors circulated that friends of the boy who was taken into custody planned to carry out violence at the school when students returned to school on Tuesday, Feb. 20, after a day off for President’s Day.

Drees told Hays Post that law enforcement investigation had uncovered no other student involvement in the threat, and this second rumor was also found to be not credible.

Straub released a letter to parents via email on Monday night trying to alleviate concerns. The school brought in a police officer to be at the school at the start of the day on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Superintendent Thissen was also on campus that morning.

Straub said those students whose parents kept them at home due to security concerns will not be penalized for the day they missed. Eighth-grade students were also visiting HHS Tuesday, Feb. 20, for orientation. Straub said he was not aware of a large number of students absent from that group.

Straub, as well as school board president Lance Bickle, said they had taken dozens of calls from parents concerned about the threat and rumors. Many parents expressed frustration about the delay in notification and what was perceived as a lack of communication between the public and the district.

One parent commented on the Hays Post Facebook page, “I’m a parent of a child at Hays High, and this ticks me off beyond belief knowing my child was there that day and no notice was sent. I think in situations like this, the decision should be of the parents to decide what is safe. I would have pulled my child from school until I feel it’s safe for his return. …”

Another parent wrote, “Wondering why my child and several others are convinced … and I mean convinced that this was a group and Tuesday they are in grave danger. I need to hear more about this. These kids are very scared, and I know several are planning to stay home. It could be imaginations gone wild, but I believe some more information would put many of us at ease, especially the students.”

Yet another parent said, “This is great and all that it’s finally came out, but why weren’t we parents notified yesterday? Instead of coming home from work to hear such startling stories, we should have been informed by the school! They can send out regular automated messages about school events and early releases, but they can’t about our children’s safety? At least let us know it’s handled instead of having to hear this from our kids! The responsibility of our district makes me sick to my stomach! The responsibility of keeping my kids safe is in the hands of the school, and this is sadly how I’ve finally been officially notified.”

Bickle said he had concerns, but did not want to make an official comment until he knew more about the incident. He has asked that a discussion of the incident be placed on Monday’s school board agenda.

“We are going to talk about what happened and what changes need to be made,” he said.

Straub said Thursday he hoped to sit down soon with the superintendent and law enforcement to discuss how this incident was handled and how communication with parents and the public could be handled differently in the future.

The student who made the original threat was removed from school on the morning of Monday, Feb. 12, and Thissen said he thought things were being handled, but then the situation became much more complicated after the school shooting in Florida. Thissen said he thought the school shooting on Feb. 14 affected how the students and parents perceived safety at the school.

“I think we have to acknowledge that something really horrible happened in the middle of the week that had some impact on this. Although Florida is a long ways away from here, the media allows it to be right next door. It created a whole other impact of what was happening with this case,” he said. “Although this was a school threat, it was a child in need of care from the beginning with the county attorney being involved.

“For me to say this needed to be handled differently … if they would have known what was happening on Wednesday, yes. But they had no crystal ball to see how things would have progressed through the week. It is so easy to look back now and say if we would have known how things were going to happen in the United States, I would say I would have handled things differently. I am not going to say the county attorney, I going to say I should have.”

Straub noted schools are restricted in what information they can release about individual students based on student privacy laws. Child-in-need-of-care cases are also confidential. Straub said these restrictions add another dimension to a case like this.

The school district has both district-wide and school crisis plans. However, Straub said HHS has not had an active shooter drill. He said the district has tried to balance student safety with the desire not to make security plans public to people who might have violent intentions.

Straub encouraged parents and members of the public to contact school or law enforcement officials if they have a safety concern or believe a threat has been made.

He said he would rather tell a parent the school has already heard about a threat and investigated it than have a threat go uninvestigated.

“Let somebody know,” Straub said. “They say if you see something or hear something, say something,” he said. “It’s that concept. If we all communicate better, and we all will communicate better, I think that it is a better and safer county altogether.”

The National Association of School Psychologists said social media can be a friend or foe when dealing with a school crisis. The organization encourages administrators and crisis teams to build plans on how to use social media into their crisis plans.

“Sometimes social media can be a source of psychological trauma and other challenges. Of great concern is the fact that social media has the potential for triggering or exacerbating crises and the phenomena of contagion, wherein learning about a crisis event can lead to another crisis event,” the association’s website said.

Hays High is not the only school in Kansas to experience a school threat in the last two weeks. Police and school districts in Dodge City, Wichita, Great Bend, Salina, Junction City and, most recently, Hill City have learned of alleged threats.

The association said intensive, detailed coverage of a crisis can raise children’s anxiety levels.

The American Psychological Association has a series of articles available that discuss how to talk to your children about school shootings. USD 489 also has school psychologists on staff who might be able to help if your child is experiencing anxiety about school violence.