A violent threat was made by a student to a staff member at McDougle Middle School on Monday February 26, 2024, an incident that made headlines in local media and caused a number of parents to pull their children out of school due to safety concerns. On the following Monday, there was a “sick out” with—according to a statement made by principal Christopher Horne—approximately 15 teachers absent.
The district’s response left many feeling uneasy, including a mother of a sixth-grade student at McDougle who said, “We received an email Sunday night saying that 15 teachers would be out. The actual number ended up being 23, and the sixth grade had only two teachers present. I did not take my child to school that day. If the teachers feel something is so wrong that they are calling out sick, I’m standing with the teachers.”
All of this begs the question: are we doing enough to ensure both student and teacher safety?
Proconian’s Lila Philpot caught up with the district’s Chief Communications Officer Andy Jenks to discuss school safety and meeting the needs of students, parents and faculty and staff.
In the message the district conveyed to the community, it wasn’t clear what exactly the threat was, only that a verbal threat was made. Could you elaborate on that?
That’s correct. That’s where we left it. A student made a threat that was interpreted as a threat against the school—made a comment I should say—that was interpreted as a threat against the school.
Are you concerned that the lack of transparency on what exactly the threat was could have led to more rumors?
We worked very hard to be as transparent as we can. We felt we did that at the time. But I can say that and also acknowledge that families and staff always want more.
How do you think the district better support students who are struggling like the one that made this comment?
We’re very much focused on a safe and supportive learning environment for all students, and that’s going to look different from one student to the next. It’s a combination of efforts from school administration, school counselors, school psychologists, social workers and all the various support personnel who have their fingers on the pulse of the students every single day.
Oftentimes it comes down to having trusted adults in the building who develop supportive relationships so that a student knows that they are taken care of at school—that someone’s looking after them, that someone is looking out for their best interests. When those relationships exist, we believe that positive outcomes are possible.
How do you think that the teachers would feel safer in their work environment? The situation brought up a lot of concerns because many teachers felt the need to call in sick and leave the building.
What resulted from that was a series of open and honest conversations that persist to this day—between the staff as a whole and their school administration, as well as district administration. And while I won’t promise that we’ve addressed every question and solved every issue, I think we’ve made a lot of progress, and helping folks understand that they’ve been heard and that we understand what they are saying and that we are continuing to listen to what our staff needs moving forward.
Is there any message you would like to send to teachers who still feel concerned about not being heard?
Our eyes and ears are open. Relationships are all about trust. [Teachers should] trust the school administration, as well as the district administration. And on our side, we have to make sure we’re continuing to listen to what people are telling us and that doesn’t always happen overnight. It develops over a sustained period of time, and we’re held accountable when staff will be able to tell us whether we’re doing the things we say we’re doing or not. In this case, it involves safety planning and the different arrangements that are in place so that staff feel safe and secure while they’re at work. That’s never just a one-time conversation—that’s an ongoing thing and we expect to be held accountable for it.
