Expert: Communication key after school threats

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Reports of school threats have spiked in some West Michigan communities following the shooting massacre in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.

The tragedy has also heightened the level of sensitivity and concern of parents, who say they want to know about threats involving schools and how administrators handle them.

This issue came to a head Tuesday at Northview High School, where word spreading about a school threat caused dozens of students to abruptly leave school early.

The situation, police said, was related to a Feb. 22 incident in which one student allegedly threatened to shoot another during a verbal altercation. Police had already deemed that the threat was not credible because the student in question didn’t have a gun, Kent County sheriff’s officials.

Nonetheless, the school seemed intent on keeping information about the threat quiet. The superintendent even told 24 Hour News 8 that he had no idea what might be behind the student lockout, a notion that later seemed unlikely once investigators confirmed that school leaders were the ones to report the threat in the first place.

Full story: WOOD TV


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