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PARK CITY — Extra police officers were dispatched to the Kearns' campus of the Park City School District Tuesday due to a potential threat. Parents are angry the district knew about the threat for months, but didn't tell them earlier.
Superintendent Ember Conley said the district received a written statement in October regarding a possible threat against some teachers and an administrator with reference to May 3.
"Once we received that we started working with our administration, with Park City Police Department, with our school resource officer, putting a plan in place for the students that were involved in this situation," she said.
Conley said students involved are not at school Tuesday.
"The students have been placed either at home with their parents or a responsible adult, so they won't be at school today," she said.
Some parents complained on the district's Facebook page about not being told earlier. Conley said the district receives different types of threats throughout the school year and handles each on a case-by-case basis. The district does not make all threats public.
In this case, Conley felt the district handled the situation completely.
"We followed our policy and our students are safe," she said. " If I didn't think it was safe, I would close the school."
She said students somehow learned of the threat and began discussing it on social media late Monday afternoon.
"The timing was not great, we admit that, but we want to assure our students are safe," Conley said.
The Kearns campus includes district offices, Park City High School and Treasure Mountain Middle School.
Conley later released a letter detailing the threat:
Today was a day filled with fear, frustration, and anger. All of these emotions are real when we deal with our own children and their safety. We each send our students to school with the foundational belief that they are safe. In this situation, timing was of concern. To address this worry, I can share that we have safety plans in place; and staff and students are educated on how to react to these situations. Each school safety issue is taken on a case-by-case basis. With each concern, we loop in law enforcement and then follow a process to assess the risk and/or threat. We follow all federal and state statute in regards to the Safe Schools Act. With this situation, we immediately assessed risk with our safety team, which included law enforcement, counselors, and administration, who worked hand in hand with the school district and had determined that there was no danger to students, and created a comprehensive plan. In this particular circumstance, anyone involved directly had been communicated with numerous times. While some may disagree about the level and timing of communication, the process worked. There was no violence in our schools in Park City. In fact, we applaud our students in sharing the information with their parents who then reported it to administration. This is what we have taught our students to do. Below is a timeline of what occurred: In the early evening of May 2nd, school administration started getting notification that there were rumors of a planned school shooting. The number of calls and emails increased significantly in a matter of minutes. Concerned parents were calling to check if it was true. With the increased use of social media by our students, this concern only escalated. As the concern and the number of calls increased, the PCSD safety team, which included law enforcement, counselors, and administrators pulled together. Law enforcement was involved at each and every step of this situation. In addition, legal counsel was working hand in hand with the district throughout the night. Many details cannot, and will not, be released due to strict student confidentiality and FERPA Laws. As quickly as possible, the decision was made to inform parents that we were aware of the concern. We immediately contacted Park City Police Department and legal counsel to craft proper communication. The timing of the communication was not ideal, but, when faced with the choice of communicating at that hour or not communicating at all, we chose to inform the community. Student safety at school was, is, and always will be our top priority. If at any time, the team felt anyone was at risk during the school day on school grounds, school would have been closed. With any school safety issue, we take time to debrief and make our system better. We are working with the Park City Police Department, parents, students and the community to examine what worked, what didn’t work, and how we can improve. We hear you, and we understand the frustration and anger with the communication. We will continue to improve our communication process to ensure that you are given timely and pertinent information in an effective way.
Contributing: Mike Anderson
