NORTHAMPTON — Two weeks after a bomb threat disrupted multiple schools, school officials are making arrangements for new lockdown training, considering better communication equipment and strategizing safe ways to keep the public informed of unfolding crises.
During a special School Committee last week, interim Superintendent Jannell Pearson-Campbell described the district’s reaction to the Sept. 13 threat, which appeared in a group text message and targeted Northampton High School.
“Due to privacy laws, we are only able to provide limited information … This is a police investigation and any time I send a message out, I have to go through my attorney first, and that’s why the messages are kind of vague,” Pearson-Campbell said. “However, district leadership took steps to communicate available and appropriate information to the community.”
She said a new crisis team has been assembled to review protocols for teachers, schedule training and collaborate with city agencies. The team is composed of school principals, the director of student services, the director of nursing services and a Police Department representative.
After the threat was discovered, Pearson-Campbell said the first step was to call 911 while NHS was put under a shelter-in-place order, requiring students, staff and visitors to remain in the room they were in while classroom learning continued. JFK Middle School was locked down at the direction of the associate principal — meaning no one was allowed in or out of the building or individual rooms, all educational activities stopped and silence was expected.
“They made the decision to do a lockdown because, at that time, we didn’t know where the message was coming from, and so that was done out of precaution,” Pearson-Campbell said.
Those in the district’s remaining schools were told to shelter in place, except for Ryan Road Elementary School, where dismissal was already underway and allowed to continue.
First responders, including the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad, were first dispatched to the high school at 380 Elm St. around 2 p.m. The shelter-in-place order lasted for about 90 minutes before students were dismissed five minutes early.
The district said it conducted a threat assessment and determined that classes could be held the next day. Pearson-Campbell said she met with police officials and that each building’s staff held a debriefing meeting the following day. Students were also offered meetings with social workers and guidance counselors.
In future emergencies, Pearson-Campbell said, each school will have a “team captain” to serve as the designated liaison with first responders. The district also created a standard email that principals can quickly send to classroom teachers to explain the type of emergency response that is needed, rather than using only an intercom announcement, and is exploring a new walkie-talkie system that connects with police to avoid overreliance on cellphones.
She said the district has reviewed every communication that it received from caregivers, the staff union and others and that the feedback will be “considered” as officials review the emergency response plan. Police, the district’s lawyer and the special education attorney will be involved in the review.
“Most importantly, no matter how minor, even if you are not sure: see something, say something,” Pearson-Campbell said.
She asked the school community to report any unknown building visitors to the main office and to close and report any doors that are propped open. A new evacuation contact form is in the works that would identify up to four emergency contacts per student rather than two.
Ward 6 committee member Margaret Miller asked if there was any way to notify the community sooner through a robocall in order to interrupt the “rumor mill” that churns as students start to text their caregivers. Pearson-Campbell said that decision is made by police, fire and bomb squad leaders on the scene.
Committee member Meg Robbins of Ward 1 raised the specter of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in May, during which local police detained terrified parents who tried to rescue their children. She said students should not be “the last to know” the reason for an emergency response in part because they will be communicating with others outside.
“I have no idea how that’s done intelligently and safely and carefully,” Robbins said, “but I want us to be really cognizant of it and to know that the first thing kids are going to do is to grab their phones and let their loved ones know that they’re concerned.”
Vice Chair Gwen Agna, who retired as principal of Jackson Street School in 2020, cautioned that revealing too much information could pose a danger if the threat is real.
“The district has been pretty vigilant about keeping current and doing best practices, and we’re guided by the Northampton Police Department,” Agna said, adding that the department is “very astute and very current” on the subject of school safety.
Agna said she participated in numerous lockdown and evacuation drills during her time as a principal in Northampton. The drills were not held during the COVID-19 pandemic, at first due to schools going virtual and then, when school returned to in-person classes, to avoid violating social distancing standards, committee members said.
Asked to say what worked well during the episode and what did not, Pearson-Campbell praised the many administrators and other district staff who are still relatively new, but worked together smoothly. She said the district needs to offer more training on the proper protocols “so that everybody knows their roles” and that the police department is involved in scheduling those sessions.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.