In light of recent school threats that impacted attendance rates, local school board officials are considering how these situations can be best handled in the future.
This discussion comes after a school threat was posted on social media and circulated across Chatham-Kent last week. It has since been confirmed that Chatham-Kent schools were not at the centre of the threat. Waterloo Regional Police say officers arrested a youth after some threatening graffiti turned up on a storage unit near the football field of Jacob Hespeler Secondary School in Cambridge.
Gary Girardi, superintendent of education at Lambton-Kent District School Board, says the threat was brought to the attention of school administration, which then acted accordingly.
"We moved to investigate both through our own pathways and also, reach out to our community partners, including, in this situation, the Chatham-Kent police, to also give input and potentially have their own investigation, which did occur," explains Girardi. "[This] allowed us to gather information, which we were able to then use to inform the school community and the public."
Girardi says at some schools, there were slight increases in absenteeism while the threats were being investigated. He says at one school, in particular, the absence rates doubled on Friday, April 6.
The superintendent says moving forward, the school board wants to continue to create pathways for dialogue with community partners about these issues.
"We had really good conversations with staff, students, and parents in our community in regards to what was happening on social media," explains Girardi."Those kinds of conversations help us to assess the concern, the threat and then take steps to investigate and move forward in a decision or pathway to supporting our students and keeping people safe."
Girardi reminds residents to make good decisions when it comes to social media. He says it is also important to communicate concerns with parents, family members, the school, and any other community partners.