Police investigation finds threat unfounded

An increased police presence at Spring-Ford Area High School Friday was in response to an online threat.

LIMERICK » An increased police presence at SpringFord Area High School Friday was in response to the investigation of a threat posted on social media, according to school officials.

Thursday, High School Principal Patrick Nugent sent a letter to parents informing them of a rumor that someone was making threats of violence at the school on social media, according to a notification posted Friday by Superintendent David Goodin.

School police and the Limerick Police Department conducted “thorough in-person investigations and have found no evidence indicating that the rumors are true,” Goodin wrote. “There is no threat to our students’ security or safety at this time.”

“While this situation was isolated to the high school, rumors quickly spread throughout the community,” Goodin wrote. “Any delay in communication was based on getting all the facts correct, making informed decisions and notifying the appropriate parties in a timely manner.”

Increased police presence at the school Friday is due not the unfounded threat, but a decision by officials to re-assure students, staff and the community “as a result of the anxiety created from this rumor, driven primarily by a social media post, in combination with recent school violence across the country,” according to Goodin’s letter.

The school violence to which Goodin referred — the Feb. 14 shooting death of 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — also spurred discussion among the Spring-Ford School Board members last month about the potential need to have more armed guards at district school buildings.

During the Feb. 23 meeting, the board learned it would cost taxpayers about $500,000 to have an armed guard in every school.

Goodin told the board the last security review was completed in October, 2014 and that a look at that report to see if it needs to be updated is certainly warranted.

A teacher who from Upper Providence told the board he does not agree with the idea of arming teachers

“Statistically armed guards don’t work,” he said, noting the guards and police in Parkland did not enter the building during the shooting.

“In a gun fight, police hit their target 18 percent of the time and we think an armed guard is going to do better than that?” he asked, suggesting more students might be harmed as a result.

One parent said he protects his daughters with the legally concealed hand gun he carries and doubted that training kids to hide in a room would protect them.

School Board President Tom DiBello stressed that “no decisions have been made” about increasing the number of armed staff in the schools.

The school board is also considering an update to its social media policy in which it would ignore complaints on social media or web sites not controlled by the district.