My childrens high school

[Katarina]

had bomb sniffing dogs there yesterday because of threats they found in a bathroom. I found out about this late yesterday evening because someone on a local message board read it on the Jacksonville news website. WE are 25 miles north of Daytona Beach. Jacksonville in 60 miles north of us. There was nothing on the Daytona News Journals website yesterday. It's there today...after the fact. Come to find out, the school district has been aware of this since Feb 15. The threat in the bathroom listed the date March 1st. We don't have many threats, or at least I don't think we do, but I'm furious that they have known about this since the 15th and not told the parents. Instead we had to read about it from a paper 60 miles away from us! Is this normal? Do schools keep this kind of stuff from parents usually? Or did they knowingly keep this from parents because of the FCAT testing going on now? Thoughts?

[Swamp Rat]

1. Tell all the other parents and give them copies of the article. n/t

[bleedingheart]

2. no that is not normal to keep the information from the parents

FCAT testing or not, I think that you should have gotten a note.

There was an robbery about 1/4 mile from our elementary school and they put the school into lockdown to protect the kids in case the perp decided to hide in the school.

That evening a note went home with all the kids so that we would know that something had happened and what the response of the school was.

[Katarina]

3. They have a calling system

in place in the schools like reverse 911 where they could have called all the parents to let them know with a recorded message. They just chose not to. Thanks for letting me know this isn't normal. I guess I am going to be writing some emails today.

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. I cannot believe they kept this information from the parents!

Had "I" known there would be a "possible" bomb in my son's school, HE WOULD NOT BE ATTENDING!!! The parents should have been notified and given an option on whether or not they wanted to put THEIR child in harms way. :grr:

[Katarina]

5. That's exactly the way I feel!

My children would have not been anywhere near that campus. But this fricken test is soooo important...gotta get those grades so the school get's their $$$$$ ya know. I'm so tired of it.

(Edit for spelling)

[LWolf]

8. Obviously, the best course of action

would be to close the school while they do their search. They probably didn't want the author of the threat to be "rewarded" with success. If handwritten threats close schools, a lot more handwritten threats will come in, with a lot more school closures.

In my state, if they didn't close the school and everybody, or even 10% of the student population stayed home, they'd take a big budget hit, because our budget is dependent on our average daily attendance; the number of kids who show up for school.

And, if it was a testing day, the school is sanctioned if too many kids don't take the test.

All of that is no excuse for not communicating to parents; I would have kept my kids home, too.

[Feathered Fish]

6. I'm not sure about bomb searches

I imagine that they should have informed the parents as soon as this threat was discovered. Can you think of the fallout if a bomb went off in the school and the officials knew about the threats for days?There would be some serious consequences for the school.
In my experience, the school one day had 25 cops and three dogs for locker searches for drugs. I think everyone went home and told thier parents and hell was raised. The principal had to step down, and so many parents pulled their kids out of the school.

[Katarina]

7. Here's the article from my local paper

They foound the message on Feb 15th. I said the same thing to my husband last night. What if something had happened and it came out that the school had known about this for 2 weeks. The paper said that students were aware of this but both of my children had no idea. I guess they don't hang with the right crowd. :eyes:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Flagler/03FlaglerFLAG04030205.htm

<snip>
The writing said, "Bad things will happen to FPC" on March 1 -- also the start of FCAT testing. The note mentioned guns and knives.

But officials determined the message was a hoax, possibly to disrupt the state's standardized testing.

"There was never at anytime anyone in danger," Flagler Palm Coast High School Principal Bill Delbrugge said.

Flagler County sheriff's deputies searched the school Monday night and Tuesday morning with a bomb-sniffing dog. The agency also staffed 10 deputies at the school when it usually has three.

"You can never tell," Sheriff Don Fleming said, "so that's why we did that."

The message was found Feb. 15 -- two weeks after 500 students left Pine Ridge High School in Deltona amid rumors that racial violence would break out on campus.

[AngryOldDem]

9. I think it's kept hidden

In my town, you'd think that the urban high schools are nests of violence and perversion, because whenever the slightest thing happens at one of them, the media is on it like stink on shit. Meanwhile, the rich suburban school has its share of crime, and nothing gets said. Every week when the suburban shopper comes out that features the weekly police roundup, I count the number of times the cops were called to the high school for drugs, theft, threats, fights, what have you. Not a week goes by that there are at least five complaints filed from that place. Yet, to the outsider, it looks squeaky clean. All goes to being in a "good" part of town and having people who are savvy enough to hide the truth from the public. I'll have a kid going there next year (which I'm not particularly thrilled about), and it pisses me off that schools are not more forthcoming about what goes on during the course of a day. I don't know if high schools have to report their incidences of crime as colleges do; if they don't, they should.

And you're right to wonder just what else goes on at this school that they don't bother telling you about. Good question for your school board, IMO.

[Katarina]

10. As of now we only have

one high school in this county. There are 2800 students there - 200 over the capacity. I shudder having to send my kids there. They are opening a charter high school here and you can bet on it that my other 2 boys will be going there instead. I switched them out of regular school this year and put them in the charter elementary school and it's been an amazing year so far. This school district is hideous. Our county has 10,000 students and every year it is nothing but the school superintendent wanting more money. As it is now he makes $140,000 a year, $800 monthly car allowance and much more. It's disgusting. They are in the process of building another high school, found out there were some construction flaws, decided not to pay overtime to get the school ready for the upcoming school year and set the opening back for another year. Which means next year there will be over 3,000 students at our one high school. Can you imagine the chaos if something like an attack happened with that many students in one place? Which is all the more reason they should have let us know so we could have made a decision. I don't want my kids in that kind of situation.

[AngryOldDem]

11. This sounds like where I'm at

The high school, no joke, is just about as big enrollment wise, and square-footage wise, as the community college downtown. It looks like a small college (and I'm sure that some small colleges would envy the facilities). There are just too many kids in one place. But the school board is hesitant to build new facilities, because the demographics here are so volatile. In a way, I can't blame them, but when you're stuffing kids to the rafters in outdated and/or inadequate buildings, you're just asking for trouble. Plus, the way I see it, if enrollment drops and they do have to merge schools, the unused properties can either be put to alternative use, or sold off. Other outlying school districts here have done that.

The irony for me is, when my freshman-to-be was a toddler, we lived in an area with a similar high school. This was the biggest high school in the state, and the trouble there was just unbelievable (and this was in a far northern suburb of a big city, too). In the space of one school year, they had two arsons (one of which completely destroyed renovation work that was in progress), and a kid was nearly beaten to death in the parking lot. All during or right after school hours. I swore my kids would never attend such a hellhole. Well, they aren't -- they'll just be attending a different hellhole. I wish the charter schools here were as good as yours sound. But we can't afford to send our kids to private school because it's just too costly, and we have college to think about. So it's just four years of crossing our fingers and gritting our teeth.

To me, 2,800 or 3,000 kids in one place is just unacceptable. I would definitely be talking to my school board about this incident and ask if they are going to handle things differently in the future.

[ohio_liberal]

12. But, but....

It's the American Way to consolidate all small schools into one collosal mass of teenagers! My kids' school district has worked for 5 years to pass levies so they can build their Walmartesque mega-school. :(

[tcoursen]

13. When I was in high school

When I was in high school back in the 80's there were a few bomb threats called in. I remember the dogs being brought in twice.

I don't think they ever sent anything home to my parents about it. I told them about it.

Maybe they are assuming that the kids told the parents. Maybe they are putting together something once they get a full report and then send it home. Better to send it home once they get all the facts than to rush out a report that may not have all the information.