As many of you are aware, the Gorham Superintendent sent a message to parents and community members yesterday stemming from a potential Facebook threat that included several school districts in York and Cumberland Counties. This message was broadcast on television networks on Wednesday evening. The threat indicated the potential of a school shooting on Friday, December 21, 2012. A specific school was not identified, but the rumor was that there was a list of schools. ...Based on the conference call that just concluded with Superintendents and law enforcement agencies throughout the state, this situation has been determined to be not credible. The Maine State Police investigation traced the rumor beginning with a question posed via email by an administrator in a southern Maine school district to colleagues. The question had to do with students discussing the end of the world on Friday, December 21, 2012 and the Mayan calendar. The administrator was unaware of this prediction and assumed it had to do with the school shooting on December 14, 2012. Somehow this information spread from student to student and word of mouth. The Maine State Police has determined there was never a Facebook message or text message with a threat to Maine schools.
The measures I have taken between yesterday and today have been that all administrators and directors have been directed to implement a modified lock-down procedure on Friday. Exterior doors to all schools will be locked at all access points and will be manned to allow individuals in and out of the buildings. Staff who have preparation periods will monitor halls in the schools and classroom doors will be closed and locked during class time in the event we need to go into a lock-down. We have several procedures in place for such events and we are implementing them fully. ...
We will be maintaining police presence in our schools tomorrow due to the extensive media coverage of this event to insure we do not have a person acting on the media's presentation of information. Although this has been determined to be a non-credible threat, we want to insure that a person does not act on the media hype and consider such an activity. ...
Attached is a message being shared with media sources and Superintendents about the outcome of the State Police investigation. This collaborative effort was very effective in solving this potential threat.
The Maine State Police has determined there was never a Facebook message or text message with a threat to Maine schools.
Although this has been determined to be a non-credible threat, we want to insure that a person does not act on the media hype and consider such an activity. ...
Lots of variables to cover. 8D, 6Sigma BUMP!