Bentonville Principal Requests Crisis Cooperation

Chad Scott
Chad Scott

BENTONVILLE -- A flood of phone calls and text messages during an evacuation of Bentonville High School last month caused the school's communication network "to respond slowly or in some cases not at all," Principal Chad Scott wrote this week in a letter to parents.

Parents should refrain from calling the school and trying to communicate with their children in the event of a school-identified threat or crisis, Scott wrote. He recommended they visit the high school's or School District's website for updates and watch their computers and cellphones for messages from the school. He also urged parents not to come to the school unless directed by administrators to do so.

At A Glance

School Threats

Bentonville is one of several Northwest Arkansas school districts that have been affected by bomb threats and other threats to safety this year, particularly within the last five weeks. Threats reported since January include seven in Rogers, five in Bentonville, three in Springdale, two in Fayetteville and one in both Greenland and Lincoln.

Source: Staff Report

"Every situation requires unique responses. Upon hearing of a threat or crisis at school, parents will desire to act quickly. Unfortunately, emotions and subsequent actions can get in the way of the school delivering the best responses to a threat or crisis," Scott wrote.

The high school was evacuated April 1 after a bomb threat was found in a boys restroom in the South Building. Students were dismissed at 12:15 p.m. to allow the Police Department's Bomb Squad to search of the building.

Scott's letter was posted to the high school's website either Thursday or late Wednesday, Scott said. Automatic phone calls were supposed to be made to parents Thursday to encourage them to review the letter.

As a parent, Scott said he understands the desire to communicate with a child during a crisis at school.

"But that could be hindering what's going on here to take care of the students," he said Thursday. "We're all trying to get to the same place, keeping (the students) safe."

He said there was a specific situation during the April 1 incident where a call that needed to be made by emergency personnel couldn't be made, presumably because of the volume of phone traffic.

Scott's letter also implores parents not to call 911 for information or to post their thoughts on social media in emergency situations.

"The more communication that goes around that isn't necessarily educated or is more rumor and doesn't have the facts of things, overall that hurts or hinders the communication and processes we're trying to put in place to do the things we need to do," he said.

Police Chief Jon Simpson, school resource officer Jason Beeler and several School District administrators met April 9 for a debriefing on the incident to discuss ways they could improve their response. Sterling Ming, district finance director, directed the meeting.

"One of the things that came out of the meeting was, under the circumstance, the Bentonville Police Department, our student resource officers and the school administration acted very well, very admirably," Ming said. "They made good decisions at appropriate times."

The group identified several areas for improvement, however, which were laid out in a two-page memo by Ming.

"Administration is to develop a script answer to be used by staff who answers the phones," the memo states. "Means of communication should include text, email, telephone message and website. The message includes where the reunification area is and directs parents to that location to pick up students."

Students and staff members should be instructed to take car keys and other personal belongings with them during an evacuation, the memo states. During the April 1 incident, the school was closed for hours, an inconvenience for many people who had left belongings inside.

Ming also said radio communications were difficult. The district needs to convert its radios to a digital format and schedule radio protocol training for personnel, he said.

More licensed personnel should be assigned to supervise students who are evacuated across Southeast J Street to the Tiger Athletic Complex to ride buses, according to Ming's memo.

Mary Ley, director of communications, was one of the district administrators who participated in the debriefing.

"It was a really healthy meeting," Ley said. "We took a bad situation and we learned a lot from it."

The protocols developed for Bentonville High School don't apply to other school buildings mainly because of its size, Ley said. The high school consists of two buildings plus portable classrooms and, with more than 4,000 students, it dwarfs the other schools in the district.

Bentonville police officials weren't available for comment Thursday.

The district has a very good partnership with the Police Department, Ming said.

"They provide a great service to the School District," he said.

NW News on 05/02/2014

Upcoming Events