Ocean City High School, Mainland Regional High School, Linwood, Northfield all forced to react to bogus incidents
OCEAN CITY – Last week, Ocean City High School, Mainland Regional High School and Linwood and Northfield public schools had to react after potential threats were received in the districts.
All of the threats turned out to be unfounded, but they prompted an evacuation at OCHS and lockdowns at the other schools.
A social media threat about a possible incident at OCHS around lunchtime Tuesday – later determined to be an old post circulating on social media that had nothing to do with the local district – led to the evacuation and then early dismissal at the high school, a move school board members and a parent brought up at the Board of Education meeting the next evening.
Linwood public schools and Mainland Regional High School went into lockdown Friday after receiving information about a possible threat.
A note containing a possible threat with no specifics of time or date was discovered on the playground at Belhaven Middle School.
“We contacted the police department as per our standard response protocol and initiated an investigation,” Superintendent Brian Pruitt said.
According to the Linwood Police Department, officers conducted an investigation at at Belhaven Middle School in regards to information the district had received, with students and faculty sheltering in place at both schools and the high school.
According to Pruitt, a shelter in place order began at about 11:40 a.m. at Belhaven. The school district’s response protocol required staff to close and lock their doors and students to remain in the classrooms. No individuals were in the halls or allowed into the building until further notice.
Pruitt said classes continued but students were not permitted to leave or enter the building.
The Shelter in Place at Belhaven Middle School was lifted at 1:03 p.m. after police deemed there was no credible threat; Seaview and Mainland were notified as well.
In Northfield, the police department investigated a threat posted to social media and found there was no direct threat to Northfield Community School.
“The threat has been investigated and found not to be credible. Normal school activities have resumed,” the Northfield Police Department stated on its Facebook page.
“The safety of our children and staff at the Northfield Community School are of our utmost importance. All incidents/reports at and to our school will be responded to swiftly, and thoroughly investigated for the safety of our community,” the department stated.
Reaction at school board meeting
After a parent stood up to say the OCHS evacuation was the wrong way to respond to an active shooter threat, Upper Township board representative William Holmes and board President Joe Clark said the incident provided a learning experience for the district.
Parent Erin Sykes of Absecon said the district did not respond properly.
“When there is a possible shooter, unless there was something else going on that parents were not told, this is why we have lockdown. I’m very disturbed that our children were removed from the school and brought to a confined open area where they were basically sitting ducks if this was a true shooter.”
Students were directed to the football field at Carey Stadium, she said an administrator told her, after police checked the bleachers to make sure they were safe.
“We don’t know if there was one shooter. We don’t know if there were 10 shooters,” Sykes said about the threat. “What about Fifth Street? What about Sixth Street? What about the boardwalk? What about the Civic Center, the parking lot, the houses, the cars? Was any of that checked before you brought the kids outside?
“It’s very, very disturbing because to do a lockdown we are minimizing casualties. To bring them outside to an open field is leaving it open for massive casualties,” she said.
She asked the board if there was something besides the screen shot of a message that prompted the response.
“So as parents, if there is something we’re missing besides that screen shot message that went around, please let us know. But I believe that it should have been a lockdown and God forbid if there was a shooter we have police and security in the school so if a shot was fired they are to run to the shots, to the classrooms, to help them, not out in an open field where God knows there could have been massive, massive casualties,” she said. “Thank God it wasn’t real, but I don’t understand why we did not do a lockdown and if someone could please explain that to us, I would love to know.”
Holmes said he believed the situation was well handled and he commended everyone involved from administrators to teachers to support staff along with the police and fire departments. “Until you’re in those situations and in those decision-making situations, you have literally seconds, not minutes, not hours, not meetings, not committees to gather together,” he said. “Fortunately yesterday was not a drill because now we get to learn from it.”
He added the district can “learn from any mistakes we did make, missteps, make things better, make things smoother, make communication better.”
“From some of the stuff that I heard, it was scary, but at the same time I thought it was pretty well handled given the situation,” he said.
Clark supported Holmes’ comments.
“This thing unraveled very quickly. Looking back I think the staff did an excellent job,” Clark said. “Are they going to learn from it? Yes. Are there going to be changes made? Yes. And I heard that from them also. Is everything going to be perfect? No.
“Our children are safe and they made what I believe is the right decision,” he added, noting it was better to react than to wait.
“When we look at what happened nationwide, where people hesitated, unfortunately those hesitations caused disastrous outcomes,” he said. “I’m proud of our staff, the way they pulled together.”
Clark said he was at the Civic Center on a city function when the incident happened and got to watch what was going on with Mayor Jay Gillian.
“I was with the mayor, we talked a little bit about what was going on, but I didn’t see chaos. I saw things were very, very systematic,” Clark said. “The buses came. It was amazing how everything rolled together so quickly. We even had facilities set up for those children who do not ride the buses and didn’t have parents that could come right away.
“I saw administrators in all different roles yesterday,” he said. “They got together and they got the job done.”
By DAVID NAHAN and CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff