Dangerous disruptions to Northwest Arkansas schools since the beginning of the year demonstrate a problem in need of a solution, but answers are elusive.
Friday afternoon, Rogers school officials reported a threatening message in a girls bathroom at Kirksey Middle School. It was the third such threat in two days in Rogers. Thursday, officials began an investigation into a threat of violence written on a bathroom stall at Rogers Heritage High School. Later the same day, a threat was discovered on a bathroom wall at Elmwood Middle School.
What’s The Point?
Students need to rethink posting threats in their school settings and realize the dangers involved. We commend school administrators for their handling of recent threats and urge punishment of violators, but also an effort to understand what was behind their actions.
On Tuesday, a bomb threat on the wall of a boy's restroom at Bentonville High School prompted the evacuation of one building, then early dismissal for the entire student body so a thorough search of the school grounds could be completed. Nobody found evidence of an explosive device.
On Monday, a BHS student reported a written threat on a girl's bathroom wall at BHS involving a gun and shooting people. The student who reported the threat eventually confessed to writing it, according to police, and she was arrested on a felony charge of terroristic threatening.
On Feb. 28, police arrested a 15-year-old girl on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and students at Springdale's Har-Ber High School were locked in their rooms for about an hour. Police say the girl threatened other students and said she had a gun.
On Feb. 20, writing found on a bathroom wall at BHS contains a bomb threat for the following day, leading to a police search of the school.
On Jan. 31, officials at Southwest Junior High School in Springdale evacuated the school after a bomb threat.
On Jan. 21, Fayetteville School saw a higher-than-normal number of absences a day after discovery of a message in a girls' bathroom stall saying "Ima bomb school tomorrow."
Sadly, the number of threats of violence would outpace the number of snow days local school districts usually have to make up. The only reason it's not this year is because of an abundance of wintry weather, not a shortage of threats.
School administrators are in a lousy position when it comes to threats of violence. The vast majority are only threats, but who can risk a chance of being wrong on that count? The biggest common denominator seems to be the use of bathroom walls for communicating these threats. Bathrooms are one of the few places of privacy in schools of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students, but that may have to change.
We applaud our school districts for their work in communicating what's happening in the midst of responding to such threats. A lack of information can contribute to panic or angst-ridden uncertainty. Or, perhaps worse in this age of social media, it's the transmission of rumors quickly around the community that must be countered by an effective emergency communication plan that uses the same platforms.
Overall, administrators have handled these incidents as well as they can be handled. It is virtually impossible, in a timely manner, to determine the credibility of a threat, so precautions are a must.
A word to any student who has even considered making such a threat: Please realize the serious nature of such acts. These kinds of threats are too disruptive and ultimately dangerous to ignore, and while they may create some perverse, temporary fun, they ultimately endanger everyone by increasing skepticism about how dangerous real threats can be. If this continues, administrators and local judges will need to impose harsher sanctions on those caught, and we encourage efforts to understand why these students took such actions. Students must know such threats of harm have no place in their educational experience.
Commentary on 04/06/2014