School Board adopts protocol for addressing student threats

The Cascade School District has adopted a Threat Response Protocol for addressing student threats from any school in the district. At the March 26 Cascade School Board meeting, Special Ed Director Brett Johnson gave a presentation on the newly adopted protocol.
Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker said after several threats across the district, it was felt they needed to have some kind of a process to determine when it is a kid making a really bad decision or is there something underlying they need to take into account.
“Brett is one of the people that took on the project. Like most school districts, we go out and steal what we can, somebody that has thought through this. So they did that, put it together, and added quite a bit to it,” Motsenbocker said.
Motsenbocker said he just added a touch to the process.
“It really has worked fabulously. After we used it the first time, we wished we had it the year before. The process is a good one,” Motsenbocker said.
Johnson said a threat assessment team has been assembled including, an administrator, counselor, intervention specials, school psychologist, school resource officer and teacher or another person who knows the student.
The goals are to increase school safety, have a quick response, be clear and systematic to help students and families.
“We’ll continue to have those kinds of goals in mind as we go through this. We’re not the only ones. OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) has information about threat assessment on their website. Ashley Bartanen (IRMS counselor) had gone to a really good workshop on all this. I’ve been through those as well. I’m sure others on the team have at different times. The information that Ashley brought back, we had a workable document. Through the team’s input, we added to it and made it our own,” Johnson said.
The protocol has a checklist for the team; detain and isolate suspected student, place student on emergency expulsion, inform superintendent, contact resource officer, gather evidence of threat from victim, witnesses and suspect, inform parents of suspected student, inform parents of the victim. Johnson said the most important thing in all these situations is giving the team a chance to be safe and make decisions.
“An emergency expulsion...some people get confused with the term expulsion. The emergency expulsion gives the school district time to research what went on. It can be up to 10 days and that can be turned into a short term, long term or led to an expulsion. The student would be placed on emergency expulsion if a threat was made,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Student Resource Officer Morrison is very involved with their team. If formal charges are to be made against a student, Morrison would be involved. In law enforcement interviews the students, then the principal, counselor or other staff members must be present.
Also involved in the process are interviews of the student, parent and teacher.
“Those don’t have to be done at any certain time, a student interview, parent interview, teacher interview. We can add to that as well. We can have a sibling interview and other staff members. We might send it out to a whole grade level team or specialist,” Johnson said. “Call together the threat assessment team. Often times, we are able to do that by the next morning or next day or within a couple days.”
Board member Kristen Wood asked if all this happens within hours.
“Some of the interviews might not happen right away. Often times, it’s good to give a little time. Through informing the parent, that would be as quickly as you can,” Johnson said.
Board member Cindy Puckett asked if there was a disadvantage wait to conduct the interview.
“All those are things the team needs to discuss, whether it is done right away or later. Those are all good team discussions. I could see it going either way. Sometimes, you might want some information, then usually you’ll get some information right away from the student,” Johnson said. “When we look through the interview questions, sometimes it’s okay to have a little time.”
Sometimes, when you’ve gathered information, you might want to go back and gather more, Johnson said.
“The whole idea is gathering as much information as you can before making a decision. The team knows that more questions come up once you are gathering information,” Johnson said.
How quickly do the emergency expulsions happen?, board member Carrie Sorensen asked. Johnson said it happened pretty quickly in both situations they had recently.
“We had a recent situation, where we detained and isolated the student, who went home with a parent on emergency expulsion. Informed the superintendent. Contacted Officer Morrrison later in the afternoon,” said Osborn Principal Kenny Renner-Singer. “I did the parent and teacher interview during the emergency expulsion meeting. It took another day to get the threat assessment team together and make a determination on what we were going to do.”
Sorensen asked what they would do if the investigation was unwarranted?
“I interviewed the witnesses and the adult who heard the threat. There is a difference between kids playing tag and saying, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ We’re not doing all of this, but if a kid writes a note that says. ‘you will die tomorrow,’” Renner-Singer said. “For the younger guys, it’s different. It is very different doing K-5 discipline and middle school discipline. I have to weigh out is this kid being a goofy little third grader or is there a real threat.”
Motsenbocker said the emergency expulsion is only used in certain circumstances.
“Emergency expulsion is used because it is the only action we do in schools where we can remove a student from the population of the school for a period of time while we figure out what’s happening, even if the parent appeals,” Motsenbocker said. “If it’s a regular expulsion or regular suspension, if a parent appeals, there is a state regulation that says we keep the kid in school while we figure it out. That is the difference. If there are threats to safety, then that is how it goes.”
There is a lot of investigation that goes before the protocol is enacted, said Cascade High School Principal Elia Ala’ilima-Daley.
“For example, we had an incident where we had a student say they overheard something. We interviewed the student and another witness. Some boys were talking about a Dungeons and Dragons game they had been playing. They said, ‘that’s what we should do that group is put them down and stab them.’ Obviously, you filter the information you get,” Daley said. “But you still contact the parent of the student who heard it, regardless of the protocol.”
The threat assessment screening is enacted when a student is involved in violent or dangerous circumstances, Johnson said, but this does not happen every time something happens. There is some research that is done to see there is a true threat of violence or there already has been some violent action that has occurred.
“We’ve already seen recently, I think our district is trying to do a really nice job informing the people involved about what is going on. The principal or superintendent emails the impacted staff or calls a standup meeting,” Johnson said. “I’ve been involved with both of those. I think ideally a standup is really nice because there are a few questions that come up immediately. Otherwise, the word gets out as quick as possible.“
The parents and community are updated as soon as possible by the superintendent or by somebody designated, by letter, email or phone call. News outlets are also made aware of what is going on.
Motsenbocker said they made a change a year ago.
“At one point, we informed staff and parents of the school that was affected. Then, we found out, people outlying heard stories about it and the facts changes, etc,” Motsenbocker said. “So we decided we would communicate to everyone, so that would eliminate the false facts.”
Does this process always work? Johnson said no process works every time, but this is a good process to through. “This is a process. One of things that comes from this, the families or student might have to go through some sort of evaluation from mental health professionals, some kind of ongoing outside counseling. We had one recently where we made sure an outside evaluation was done,” Johnson said.
There are 36 questions used with teachers, administrators, parents and students. That is all gathered and the threat assessment team looks at those. If they see enough red flags, they might have that person evaluated, Motsenbocker said. The bulk of the work on the protocol was that questionnaire, he said.
Johnson said they want feedback from the parents who go through this process.
“Actually, both of our recent situations went through this..both parents said, if somebody had made a threat to my child, I would want a similar process,” Johnson said. “I think that is a good thing for us to think about. If they think this is a good thing after we just put them through it, there must be some value in it. We’re open to feedback. It is a high anxiety situation.”
Anytime a threat is made, it is a lose-lose for the school district, Motsenbocker said.
“If it really doesn’t warrant an aggressive stand and we don’t it, then we’re criticized. And if we do it, we’re criticized. We really can’t win in every case. The only thing that will work for us is if we’re consistent,” Motsenbocker said. “If we follow it every time, then at least, we’re being fair. That’s really the only things we can stand on to get public support.”
Johnson said they want to make sure schools are safe.
“Having protocol and a process helps make sure the right steps are taken,” Johnson said.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.