LETTER: Administrators should resign over school threat response

 

To Ozaukee Press:

On Friday, May 12, a teacher violently threatened students at John Long Middle School in Grafton. The response by the principal and superintendent was negligent and extremely dangerous for the well-being of students and the community as a whole.

They chose to not call police, which is in direct violation of Grafton School District Board of Education Policy 8462.01 entitled “Threats of Violence.” Both Chris Weiss and Jeff Nelson made terrible choices as leaders in our district to keep their supposed positive image and to not supposedly instill panic among both students and families. They failed.

When any person, whether it be a student, staff member, community member or stranger, is threatening on our school campuses, police and families should be notified immediately. It is not up to the principal and superintendent alone to conduct an investigation, as they did during precious minutes when the suspect was released to potentially come back and harm our children and staff with his reported 17 guns.

In addition, bullying and hate speech are becoming more prevalent in our school district. The recent actions by a student who drew swastikas in the teacher’s classroom has proven dangerous to our entire community. The school board needs to take the bullying and threats seriously. This needs to stop.

On May 12, the Grafton School District chose to brush a serious event under the rug to save face. During that morning, parents were uninformed and frightened that their children may not come home safely from school. It chose to tell parents via an email sent out at 10:48 a.m.—just minutes before police arrived at the school —that there was not a threat and that what parents were hearing was just rumors.

The middle school principal and the superintendent wasted precious time for law enforcement to do its job, and even told them not to arrive at school as it would cause more of a panic. Their direct violation of the school board policy 8462.01 is the main reason parents are asking them to resign. The school board needs to take the call for resignations seriously.

Brittany Lobner

Grafton

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Ozaukee Press

Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

125 E. Main St.
Port Washington, WI 53074
(262) 284-3494
 

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