Officials listen to parents on emergency response plan

A communication system, better security and traffic control were recommended in an effort to help improve the Falls school district’s emergency response plan.
Parents in Falls High School cafeteria were calm Thursday as they told their thoughts and ideas to Falls school officials and law enforcement officials. Some parents also questioned officials about the events of March 5-6 after an explanation of the events was given. Audience members made comments anonymously to ensure equality among all audience members, according to Langan.
About 50 people attended the meeting, which Superintendent Don Langan called a “thoughtful, prepared, reflective group of parents.” Although one parent said they were concerned about the small number of people who attended the meeting, noting that “the city was in turmoil” in the days following the threats, but parents weren’t concerned enough to attend Thursday’s meeting.
Parent responses to the situation were mixed, with some audience members expressing appreciation for the actions taken March 5 and others questioning the decisions made by school and law enforcement officials. But one parent told the audience that in order for changes to take place, parents need to become involved and attend school board meetings.
“It takes parents involved on a routine basis to keep this system going,” the parent said.
The district’s emergency response plan was put into action last week after a caller left a voice mail threatening violence on the morning of March 5. The threat evacuated the district’s buildings. A second voice mail threatening of a bomb device was left Wednesday. The district’s buildings remained closed March 6.
Police have not arrested anyone in connection to the voice mails, according to Falls Police Chief Chris Raboin.

Questioning the events
One audience member questioned why school administration took the caller’s word that violence would take place at 11 a.m. March 5. She also questioned why the threat was not taken seriously until 9 a.m. March 5, and not at 7:30 a.m. when school administration first heard the message.
“That’s you putting my child’s life on the line, all our children’s lives on the line,” the audience member said.
Langan responded that when a threat is received, the administration must take the entire threat seriously. When the administration begins taking only one part of the threat seriously, they are “playing with dangerous instances.”
The only situation that could have happened at 7:30 a.m. after the message was heard was a lock down situation, Langan said. That would have entailed the buildings being turned over to law enforcement and a parameter with barricades would have been established.
In that situation, a parent’s first thought would be, “Where is my child?,” Langan said, “Parents would be extremely panicky.”
Another audience member pointed out that St. Thomas School was not notified of the threat even though they are part of the Falls school district.
Also the International Falls Fire Department and ambulance service and Falls Memorial Hospital were not notified so they could be on standby in case violence did occur at the schools.
Raboin said he realizes in retrospect that the notification should have been done. But at the time of the evacuation, he said he believed it could be completed before any violence occurred.
“I foresaw no casualties,” Raboin said.
Law enforcement should have been contacted immediately, one audience member said. Falls Police Deputy Chief Daryl Waller said he was contacted at home by FHS Principal Tim Everson after school officials were told about the message.
After listening to the message, Waller said he returned to the Law Enforcement Center. Waller also affirmed to one audience member that while he was at the Law Enforcement Center, no law enforcement was present at the school while there were students in the building.
Parents also asked law enforcement officials to release the voice mails to the public in hopes that someone in the community would recognize the voice and the caller could be apprehended.
“The odds of someone recognizing the voice is very big,” one audience member told law enforcement officials.
Several parents of special needs children also were concerned that their children were not helped by school staff during the evacuation.
Parents also asked the school officials to bring in counselors for the students. Several parents said their children are still afraid to attend school.
High school students especially could be scared, according to one parent, because they are old enough to watch school shootings on TV, as opposed to younger children who might be stopped from viewing it by their parents.
“They know what could happen to them. They have a real fear,” the parent said.
But overall implementing the plan went well, according to Raboin.
“Unfortunately in the day in age we live in, this is the reality we face,” Raboin concluded.

Plan recommendations
Several parents commented that security at the school district’s buildings is lax. During the school day, Waller is the only police officer present in the buildings and visitors can walk into the buildings without any staff knowing that there is someone in the building, several people said.
“Anyone can walk into our school and harm our children,” one audience member said.
One audience member commented that every door of the buildings should be locked at all time, with someone buzzing visitors into the buildings. Another offered the idea of having the U.S. Border Patrol set up an office in the school to provide protection.
One parent said she enters the school during the school day to check the security, “I do it for my own children’s protection,” the parent said. Even if a visitor signed in at the school office, they could misidentify themselves on the sign in sheet, the parent said.
Parents also had concerns that they did not know about the evacuation.
“If you don’t listen to the radio, you have no clue what’s going on,” one audience member said.
Parents said they wanted better notification that their children were being sent home. Several audience members said radio stations were spotty on their announcements of the evacuation.
Others questioned why the radio stations were announcing that students were being sent to First Lutheran Church, which some parents said told the caller where the students would be.
An audience member also asked the school district to make a decision to close school the following day more quickly.
Traffic control was also discussed by audience members, which Raboin acknowledged needed to be improved.
“People were panicked and all over the place,” one parent said.