Schools reflect on safety after threats
Officials, parents discuss how to protect children and balance use of the Safe2Say reporting system after several tips were found unsubstantiated
School is one of the places students should feel safest, but that hasn’t been the case recently for some Lehigh Valley students as repeated violent threats have been directed at schools in the region.
Throughout the last couple weeks unsubstantiated threats were made against Allentown schools, as well as Lehigh Career & Technical
Institute, using Safe2Say, a state-run reporting system. Following the threats students and parents are on edge, and administrators are frustrated with the misuse of the anonymous tip line.
“We were all at a very high alarm level,” Dieruff High School Principal Michael Makhoul said. “Nobody takes any threat lightly. We’re going to respond and treat everything as a viable threat until deemed otherwise.”
After a school shooting threat and additional tips of violence, Dieruff went into lockdown and subsequently dismissed students Nov. 10.
The following Monday Dieruff went into lockdown again after another tip of a potential shooting and violence. Two other ASD schools also went into lockdowns after tips of a bomb threat and potential shooting. Lockdowns were lifted later that day.
Allentown police determined none of the threats was credible, and several ASD students were charged with making terroristic threats and false alarms. The FBI also investigated the threats, acting Superintendent Carol Birks said.
“I’ve actually been approached by several of our student leaders expressing serious discontent for the poor choices of some kids,” Makhoul said of the student body response.
“We were all at a very high alarm level. Nobody takes any threat lightly. We’re going to respond and treat everything as a viable threat until deemed otherwise.” — Michael Makhoul, Dieruff High School Principal
Makhoul spoke with parents about Safe2Say and the recent threats at a monthly parent forum this past week, and he said the school will continue to explain proper use of the tool to students.
Meanwhile, LCTI, based in North Whitehall, was recently closed for four consecutive school days due to Safe2Say threats that are still under investigation.
LCTI provides career and technical programs for about 2,700 high school students from Lehigh County’s nine public districts. Some students split their day between LCTI and their district school, while others attend LCTI all day.
LCTI was closed Nov. 11 and then again Monday through Wednesday. A threat also closed the school Oct. 28. At least one of these false tips was about a bomb threat. The nature of the other threats has not been disclosed.
Pennsylvania State Police were repeatedly called to LCTI due to the threats and troopers were stationed at the school once it reopened Thursday.
Nathan Branosky, state police spokesperson, said the department wasn’t heavily impacted. It has procedures in place to shift trooper assignments when there’s a special or abnormal event, such as these threats or a politician visit, he said.
East Penn School District parent Ziad Munson, who is also a former school board member and Lehigh University professor, wrote a blog post about the repeated LCTI closures. Munson said he was surprised to see LCTI closed every day, even when threats weren’t credible.
Branosky said lockdowns, closures and evacuations are decided on whether a threat is active, it’s inside the building and how much time police need to investigate or search a building.
LCTI executive director Lisa Greenawalt said despite the recent closures the school was able to maintain continuity for students by shifting coursework and providing online assignments.
“We’ve obviously had a lot of practice with that during the pandemic,” she said.
But Peggy Repasch, an LCTI parent, said the closures and online work have been disruptive for her daughter, who attends LCTI full time.
“It’s disappointing for us as parents to see her losing her education,” Repasch said. “They learn a lot in a day. It’s not the same as being in the school, in the classroom, in the labs, where they’re doing reenactments.”
The impacted school communities have similarly been frustrated by these false tips.
Makhoul said Safe2Say has been “weaponized.” The anonymous tip line, which was created by Attorney General Josh Shapiro in 2019, allows students to report concerns about potential violence. The tip line also is used to report bullying or concerns about students’ mental health.
“They’re using all kinds of ways and means to leverage the anonymity component of it to disrupt the educational process, and we can’t let that happen,” Makhoul said.
While Dieruff will continue to improve safety procedures, Makhoul said the state needs to improve Safe2Say so tipsters can be located when they make false claims. He said ASD can’t control the tip line.
He also hopes charges brought against the students who made the false tips will serve as a deterrent to others.
Precious Petty, public relations coordinator for LCTI, said she doesn’t know how Safe2Say can be improved, but it’s clear the attorney general’s office should investigate how to better intercept false tips.
Petty said state police have contacted the attorney general’s office to discuss safeguards for Safe2Say and how police can access more tools on the investigative end.
When asked about safeguards, Branosky directed The Morning Call to the attorney general’s office, but its press team did not respond to requests for comment.
When it comes to the emotional impact of false threats, Greenawalt said students have acted as they normally would when returning to campus Thursday, talking with friends and listening to music. It was their first full day after closures, early dismissals and an evacuation.
Additional safety measures were also in place to help put students at ease, including temporary metal detectors, the presence of state troopers and additional counselors. About 30 students spoke to counselors Thursday, according to an LCTI statement.
Jeanie Garcia, director of operations at Promise Neighborhoods and a community advocate, said repeated violent threats, even those that are unsubstantiated, create fear in communities, especially those like Allentown, where violence outside of school is a continual concern.
“We have to talk about it,” said Garcia, who is also a grandparent to an ASD student. “We don’t take it as a discredited threat. Mass shootings in schools are a real thing. It’s scary for the parents.”
Yahaira Aviles, a district parent, said she kept her younger daughter home from Dieruff the Friday following the first threat because she didn’t want to go to school.
“It’s really a tough moment to have to experience for her being a ninth grader so fresh in the school,” Aviles said. “It’s only November. These aren’t the moments we hope for our children.”
Amy Herczeg, a Dieruff parent, said her daughter was also frightened by the lockdown. Herczeg would feel more comfortable sending her daughter to school if there were metal detectors, she said.
Aviles disagreed, saying schools shouldn’t feel like prisons.
Some research shows safety and surveillance measures, such as metal detectors, can have negative effects on students, causing them to feel less safe at school. These measures are also more often implemented at schools with higher percentages of students of color.
Makhoul said he has heard from parents who want metal detectors. It is up to the school board and the district to decide, but he doesn’t personally support them, he said.
“I certainly understand the element and desire for safety at all levels,” Makhoul said. “I’m also sensitive to the feel, culture and climate of what school should be like.”
Aviles and Herczeg both said the district communicated with parents during the Dieruff lockdowns fairly well, but they wanted more specific information about the threats and how they are deemed not credible.
Petty said there’s “a little push and pull with parents” who always want more information in these threat situations.
“We have to balance the information that we provide them to be informative and helpful, but again, not undermine what police are doing,” she said.
Branosky said law enforcement also has to balance informing the public and maintaining privacy of investigations and school lockdown procedures.
Munson said the public and parents need to push police to share more information in these situations while also trusting police to do their job.
“Just like I am skeptical of a law enforcement position that we can never speak about anything because it’s an ongoing investigation, I think it’s foolish to say, ‘Well, we should hear about everything no matter what,’ ” Munson said.