And Administrator Reassurances—

Student Journal ‘Threats’ Spark Parent Concerns

By Susan Coney

Last March, Julia and Joseph Morris, the parents of a fifth grader at Reed Intermediate School, got some alarming news from the school.

On March 24 Ms Morris was contacted by Reed School Principal Donna Denniston and told that a set of index-type cards were found on the school playground that were written in a child’s handwriting and gave details on how to make a spring-loaded gun. When these cards were found it was reported to the school office. Principal Denniston traced the most recent class of students out on the playground and spoke with the group of students.

This led to the discovery of an explicitly threatening journal entry written by a classmate of the Morrises’ child. The journal entry, which was related by Ms Denniston to Ms Morris over the phone and portrayed by the principal as a fictional account, graphically detailed deadly violent acts against the Morris child and family, according to Ms Morris.

The Bee has not seen a copy of the journal or the entry; school officials are not releasing the material to the public or to the Morrises.

At the time of the incident, Mr Morris was out of the country on business. Upon his return a few days after the threatening journal had been found, a meeting was held between the Morrises, Principal Denniston, and Newtown Police Youth Officer Dana Schubert. At this meeting the Morrises were looking for reassurance that the matter had been handled and wanted to find out what steps had been taken to assure the safety of their child.

The Morrises said this week they did not receive the assurances they had hoped for from the Reed administrators and staff.

“The principal certainly didn’t give us a higher level of comfort,” Mr Morris said. “You know when you look someone in the eye and you know you can trust them that they will handle something; we got none of that. No warm, fuzzy feeling.” He continued, “They were more concerned about violating the rights of the child who wrote the threats than in protecting our child. The principal was trying to keep it quiet, no bad perception, no bad press.”

Mr Morris related that the only information gleaned from the meeting was that the child had been suspended for a few days and had spoken to a school psychologist.

Mr Morris continued by saying that this was a significant problem that should be taken seriously. He would have liked the school authorities to contact Police Chief Michael Kehoe, or the state police or a third-party outside consultant. “I would like to know that they have checked out this child’s background, home life, and websites or chat rooms visited on the computer. Do I think this is a Columbine? I would say it is close to a zero chance, but it needs to be investigated.”

After pressing the school for answers to their questions the Morrises became frustrated and hired an attorney. In a letter sent on April 12 to Superintendent Evan Pitkoff and Principal Denniston the attorney inquired as to what if any actions had been taken to ensure the safety of the Morris child and every other student’s safety as well as what support and services are provided for students experiencing troubles.

Principal Denniston replied to the attorney on April 25 and stated, “I explained that I am prohibited from discussing the specific action that we took in this situation. Although I can understand their frustration at not knowing exactly what steps we took in this case, I cannot provide those details and maintain the standard of confidentiality that is required of me in this situation.”

She went on to say, “The actual steps that would be taken will vary, depending on the situation, but could include a broad range of responses, internal resources include the services of our school psychologist, guidance counselor, social worker, and school resource officer and the District Pupil Personnel Department. Examples of external resources could include such resources as the Department of Children and Families, the Court system, alternative placements, outside psychiatric evaluations, etc.”

Frustrated that they were not given more details of the steps the school had taken the Morrises contacted The Bee in a final attempt to obtain information and to express their concern in the form of a letter to the editor. (See Letter Hive.)

“I just don’t think they handled it well, they just want to make it go away,” said Julia Morris. “I was home. I should have been notified before they spoke to my child. They only stress the rights of the other child who made the threats, what about our rights? … My concerns are for all of the kids at the school.”

She added, “They should have offered us help. Offered to have our child speak with a counselor. There have been no calls from the school to see how our child is. Donna never called me once to see how our family was doing. We want to let other parents know about this situation and to be aware, this is not fantasy writing.”

Officer Schubert declined to speak to The Bee about the case except to say, “It would be extremely inappropriate and irresponsible for me to comment because of the privacy issue of the families involved and the fact that it involves a juvenile. It presents a problem with school confidentiality issues.”

Donna Denniston commented, “I would hate to see parents take from this that things aren’t being investigated and followed through on. Anything that comes up is treated as a threat and could be real and must be investigated. From a parent’s point of view it can be very frustrating, but I have a duty to follow the law.”

Superintendent Pitkoff explained, “We have procedures in place but we are limited. We cannot comment. We work hard to ensure that our students are safe. We have created an antibullying program in the schools. When we have an incident we investigate it and if we have any suspicion we contact the police. If we find behaviors that are not acceptable the student may be suspended, expelled, given counseling, or placed in alternative settings. We do have an obligation to protect and help all of our students. We handle all manners of threats no matter how minor. The school is safe.”