Three Rivers Community Schools (TRCS) was threatened twice on social media last week. Those posts had an impact which to date includes two unscheduled days off, trauma for those involved, and several questions.
Watershed Voice, after speaking to Three Rivers Deputy Chief of Police Sam Smallcombe and TRCS Superintendent Nikki Nash, is able to provide some answers.
Without releasing names, genders or ages, how many students from TRCS made threats last week, and what is their status as of Tuesday, September 17? Are they still in school?
Nash reiterated what she said during a Monday, September 16 school board meeting, that due to confidentiality laws, she cannot share anything student related.
Smallcombe provided general details and observations. The Wednesday, September 11 incident was turned over to the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office. “As far as, if they’re still in school, I can assume that they’re not, but that’s me assuming,” he said. “That’s totally handled by the school, whether they’re in school or not.”
The Thursday, September 12 incident was still being investigated as of September 17. “I can’t give you a definitive (answer on) if it was one kid, two kids, or three kids. We’re still working with the high school on identifying them,” Smallcombe said.
How can parents and students have peace of mind without knowing the status of the student or students who made the threats? Or how TRCS has or plans to handle this situation?
“As mentioned at (Monday’s) meeting, as far as school consequences, the student handbook will be followed should the suspect be identified,” Nash said. “All legal parts of the situation are handled by local law enforcement.”
Prior to calling Nash and Smallcombe, Watershed Voice viewed TRCS’ student handbook. It has sections on knowledge of dangerous weapons or threats of violence, as well as false alarms, false reports, and bomb threats.
“Students are required to report knowledge of dangerous weapons or threats of violence to the principal,” the handbook states. “Failure to report such knowledge may subject the student to discipline.”
False alarms, reports, and threats are not considered pranks by TRCS, but dangerous stunts that could result in suspension or expulsion.
“We go through the county prosecutor,” Smallcombe said. “The charges are considered a terrorist threat. Obviously, if it’s identified as a juvenile that did it, they’ll go through the juvenile court.”
Saying that juveniles aren’t sent to prison, Smallcombe also said there are consequences. He said in the past discipline has included long-term suspension or expulsion from school, as well as criminal charges.
“Those consequences follow you for the rest of your life, unfortunately, for what you think is a childhood prank,” Smallcombe said.
Smallcombe reiterated that the Thursday, September 12 incident was still under investigation. He said it’s been “quite an education,” learning how Snapchat works.
The Three Rivers Police Department is working together with TRCS’ school safety coordinator Justin Holbrook, Smallcombe said. They evaluate threats, investigate them, and take them to their logical conclusion.
“At this time (Tuesday night), we haven’t seen what we believe is a credible threat towards the Three Rivers Schools. We discussed what happened last week with the school, but they ultimately make the decision whether (to) close or not (to) close,” Smallcombe said.
The police department always goes into the discussion by saying that it’s not going to tell a school to close, Smallcombe added. Ultimately, the decision is up to the school. What is discussed is what is known or unknown, and then a decision is made.
“On Friday, if they had decided to (be open), we would have worked with them to have extra security onsite, to give parents and students that feeling of, you know, ‘Hey, everything’s okay. We’re safe and secure,’” Smallcombe said.
Why was there such an emphasis in Monday’s meeting on limiting information as opposed to being open and transparent?
Nash and TRCS School Board president Erin Nowak spent nearly seven minutes Monday commenting on the threats, school safety, and social media.
“Over the week leading up to our incidents, the Michigan police hotline went from 1-2 calls a day to 55 calls a day,” Nowak said. “There was an increase in school-related threats across the state. This was not isolated to Three Rivers, Michigan.”
Saying that TRCS has building security protocols in place, Nowak also said the district cannot share all of those plans because it makes them unsafe.
“There’s a certain amount of confidentiality that those plans have to have, and those that need to know do, and the rest of us are to trust that the plans are in place and the right people are implementing the steps of those plans. We compromise the safety of the district by sharing too much information,” Nowak said.
Later in the meeting, Nowak said student reporting and calls from concerned parents are important. Without them last week, TRCS would have been in a much worse situation.
“Along that line, you should always refrain from posting any kind of threat or negative wording about students or communities. Give those directly to law enforcement or school administration or use our OK2SAY line,” Nowak said.
When TRCS stated Friday, September 13 that there was no immediate or credible threat to the district, it also included a request about refraining from posting information on social media. Doing so can increase anxiety and fear within the community and complicate investigations, the district said.
“What do you mean by open and transparent?” Nash asked Watershed Voice on Tuesday. “As mentioned in last night’s meeting and the communication that was shared with families on Friday, student privacy laws do not allow us to share specific information.”
Smallcombe said he did not attend or watch the livestream of Monday’s meeting. He explained why repeatedly sharing a threatening image is a problem for law enforcement.
“It gets shared by this person and this person shares it, and before you know it, it’s been shared so many times, the details that we need to identify it are no longer there,” Smallcombe said. “With an original photo or screenshot, there’s access data.”
Repeated sharing of threats does two things, Smallcombe said.
“One, it creates panic, because now everybody’s talking about it. It’s giving a power to the person or persons who’s writing these things, almost encouraging them to do more of that. They see the fear that they’ve spread. Also, we’re learning about it thirdhand through social media, when these threats are happening, instead of having individuals come directly to us and say, ‘Hey, on my Snapchat friend group, this individual posted this.’ (When that happens), we can go right to that person instead of playing what I like to call a game of telephone to try to track these things down,” he said.
This has been a traumatic event for everyone involved. How does TRCS (or local law enforcement) plan to ease the concerns of parents and students alike moving forward?
“There is no doubt this is scary, and I understand the concerns,” Nash said. “It is very unfortunate we have had to face violence in school for so many years. As mentioned in last night’s meeting and the communication that was shared with families on Friday, TRCS has safety measures in place should anything arise, we have connections with local agencies if students need additional assistance, and relationship building plays a vital role in connecting with students.”
The Three Rivers Police Department would like to emphasize that it continues to work closely with Three Rivers Community Schools, Smallcombe said.
“Obviously, their director of safety and security is a former Three Rivers officer that we continue to have good relationships with. We rely on that partnership with him, and with the principals and the superintendent,” Smallcombe said.
The police department is also working to make the public aware.
“If you do call in a hoax like this, there are consequences, and we’re going to figure out who you are, and you’re going to face the consequences for disrupting and causing all of this chaos in our community,” Smallcombe said.
Frank Stanko is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.
