Parents:

After some recent events, I think it would be wise to clarify specifics of those events, as well as give some general information to inform you of how emergencies are handled.  We take the safety of the students seriously and aim to be transparent with parents and the public.  

To clarify recent events: a concerned parent notified high school administration on Friday morning just before the beginning of school about a potential threat to students.  The alleged threat was supposedly made by a student on Thursday at the end of the school day and was not originally reported to school officials. Administrators immediately investigated the report and met with students.  After this investigation, it was concluded that there was no active threat and that much of the concern was related to a prior incident.  None the less, appropriate safety and disciplinary action was taken based on the previous threatening statements—which were also previously unreported.

I can’t stress enough that there was no immediate danger to students. My own children were in the building for the day, and I was never concerned for their safety.  We understand that these are the moments that are among the most intense for parents, but we typically do not send out information unless a real emergency exists.  We avoid this practice to prevent premature alarm and unwarranted panic.  To this point, we had a large number of parents pull students from school—many after we had soundly established that the threat was not viable and the student in question was under close supervision.  

I can’t wholly tell you how important your student’s safety is to the whole Crest Ridge staff, and we take every report about threats to school safety seriously.  We also aim to share with you prompt and accurate information about any emergencies that do arise. In hindsight, if we would have been more aware of the misinformation that was being put out, the school would have done much more to clearly articulate just what the actual incident details and threat levels were.  

We appreciate your support of our school and understand how much you aim to love and protect your students.  We share in this desire. Please let us know how we can continue to improve in our efforts to effectively communicate with you.