MNPS sends letter to parents after false threat at John Overton High School
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Officials from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) are sending a strong message to families after a fake threat was made against John Overton High School on Monday and a ninth grader was arrested in connection with it.
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Dr. Adrienne Battle, the director of schools for MNPS, sent the following letter to families on Wednesday, Sept. 27:
In recent weeks, you may have seen on the news or experienced situations in which schools were placed on lockdown due to threats. Thankfully, these have all turned out to be not credible and an attempt by either students or people from outside of the state intending to cause fear, disruption, or drain valuable police resources. Some students may think of these as pranks designed to get out of classes or school, but they are extremely serious and carry with them significant legal and disciplinary penalties.
While we know the likelihood of a phone or social media threat being credible is extremely low, our schools and the police department must take them seriously until proven otherwise. MNPS isn’t the only school district experiencing these problems; we’ve seen them happening all over the country in the last couple of years.
Please take a moment to talk to your kids. Making or sharing online threats, calling in threats, or sharing rumors of a threat can be a big deal. In fact, the law now has a strict zero-tolerance policy about this, leading to serious legal trouble. One of our students this week was arrested for making a threat that caused panic and fear amongst students, parents, and staff – while requiring significant police resources to be deployed to our school to investigate.
If you come across any scary or threatening posts, please don’t share them online. Instead, let the school or the police know right away. We also ask that parents not share rumors online or with other parents but report them directly to the school or district. This is particularly important during lockout or lockdown situations when schools and law enforcement are still assessing the situation to determine the safety of students. It is natural for children and even adults to speculate, but we must wait for the facts to be investigated and shared by law enforcement and school officials before jumping to conclusions.
Thank you for helping to make our schools a safe and happy place for everyone.
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Regarding the lockdown at John Overton High, MNPS shared a statement with News 2, saying, “Principals try to keep their parents informed as quickly as possible; however, the priority is with initiating the lockdown and working with the police to assess and address the situation and secure the building. As there are many students with cell phones, it is likely they might contact their parents before schools can do a callout. After any situation such as this, we will work at the district and school levels to review, reinforce, and refine emergency response protocols to ensure timely communication with all stakeholders.”
The Uvalde Foundation for Kids, an organization that played a role in a local safety series over the summer, planned a rally at the MNPS district office for Thursday, Sept. 28 to share communication concerns following the situation at John Overton High.
After reviewing the letter sent Wednesday afternoon, however, the rally was canceled.
In a statement, the director of the foundation, Daniel Chapin, explained the decision, calling the response by MNPS “meaningful” albeit “delayed”.
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“While our foundation maintains that the district and school would do their students well to review recent incidents further to enhance their communication response timeliness and effectiveness, based on the recent commitment by MNPS, as addressed in their releases, our foundation can only trust they have begun that very process,” said Chapin.
According to Chapin, he is pleased to see that requests made of the school are being “specifically, empathetically, and methodically” addressed by MNPS.
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