Trust Nobody Official

When counting on government officials for information about emergencies, remember; their first order of business, always, is to keep order, rather than protect you or your family.

Earlier this week, Saint Louis Park high school closed down, ostensibly due to a water main break:

Superintendent Debra Bowers said, "I want to apologize,'' after spending 24 hours thinking about her decision to put out the story that the school was closed due to a water main break, when actually there were rumors that somone wanted to commit violence.

School administrators said last week's school killings in Colorado and Wisconsin played a part in their decision to put out a cover story.

Bowers and Principal Robert Laney said a student notified administrators around 8 p.m. Sunday about a rumor of violent intentions against the school.

The school's police liaison officer was called in. Seven students were interviewed and officials concluded some words had been misinterpreted.

"We were pretty comfortable about 10:30 that there wasn't a foundation to this,'' Laney said.

But a half hour later, police informed Laney about a call from a different student making similar allegations. At 11:30 p.m. they decided to close the school.

Instant day off! Yaaaay!

(Point of order: The "zero tolerance" policies that cause school to call in the cops whenever a kid whispers "gun" have stopped no violence, but are teaching students that authority is really stupid. Which, in some ways, might be the best lesson the public schools can teach anymore).

"I think you have to take every rumor and you have to investigate it because the potential is always there, unfortunately, in this day and age,'' the principal said. "Students often take actions where they don't think first. And with this type of a situation it can be deadly.''

But - this past month's violence aside - it almost never is...

...but never mind. The point is, if the school district's policy is to accept every "rumor" of "potential" violence as a full-blown mortal threat, don't parents and the community have a right to know either the danger their kids are in, or the madness that's swept their school system?

Posted by Mitch at October 4, 2006 08:07 AM | TrackBack