Dealing with school threats 'a tricky balance,' says Anglophone East superintendent

A recent string of threats at several New Brunswick schools has many people talking about how administrators deal with such situations and how the information is communicated.

Gregg Ingersoll, superintendent of the Anglophone East School District, says schools all have "emergency response" protocols, which cover threats by a person, threats in the environment and threats in the community.

Schools in his district have dealt with everything from bears on a playground, to a man barricading himself inside a house, to situations like earlier this week when Birchmount School in Moncton received "information of a threatening nature."

"It was a bomb threat essentially," with a time element, said Ingersoll. "Either a timer, or there was a certain length of time they had to get out of the school."

Birchmount was evacuated Tuesday and students were moved to their designated emergency location at the New Brunswick Community College.

A preliminary investigation suggests the message came in through the school's Wi-Fi system, but police continue to investigate.

On Monday, four schools in Bathurst were affected after police received a complaint about threatening messages and images on social media.

An 18-year-old man has been charged with uttering threats and presenting false information.

And just last Thursday, a 15-year-old boy was arrested near Riverview High School, after it was reported that someone with a firearm had threatened a student inside the school washroom.

News travels quickly

In each situation, principals must assess the level of the threat and decide how to proceed, said Ingersoll.

That could include evacuation, a lockdown or a hold and secure response, all of which are practised, just like fire drills, he said.

Once a decision is made, teachers and students are usually advised through the school intercom system and parents are notified via voicemail as quickly as possible.

Increasingly, parents are finding out bits of information through other channels, given the prevalence of smartphones and social media, said Ingersoll.

"News travels so quickly. All it takes is one student to call or text their parent and say, 'There's something going on here,' and all of a sudden parents start showing up."

On Tuesday, he said, the principal at Birchmount was so busy getting all of the estimated 450 students out of the building, taking role call and making sure they all got to the college safely, the district office helped out contacting parents.

"Our first concern is to make sure the students are safe."

Providing information to the public about an incident can be a "tricky balance," said Ingersoll.

The media has a role to play by letting people know when a situation is unfolding and raising awareness, he said.

But school officials are also sometimes "a little careful" about what they say. "We don't want to glorify and make it look like you get a lot of attention if you do something like this."

Some media, such as the CBC, have journalistic standards and practices about reporting on school threats.

Its guidelines state: "We generally refrain from publishing threats to institutions unless the threats or the security measures that ensue involve consequences for the public."

School threats also tend to have a domino effect, he said, pointing to an increase in the number of incidents since the mass shooting in Florida.

The Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland left 17 people dead.

Copycat behaviour is always a concern, said Ingersoll.