Are Kansas City area schools safe? Amid threats, here’s what districts are doing
This week’s threat of a possible shooting at Wyandotte High School is just the latest in a string of at least a dozen threats made recently against Kansas City area schools.
They echo a rise in such threats nationwide as district officials and police try to determine what is credible — and what is a worst-case scenario, like the shooting Nov. 30 in Michigan that left four students dead and six other students and a teacher wounded.
Officials in some area districts say they are reviewing policies and procedures following the Michigan shooting, as well as the series of threats against local schools.
Throughout the metro this school year, school districts have responded to shooting threats, a bomb threat and more. Last week, three students were suspended and one was arrested in connection to a series of threats scrawled across bathroom walls at Blue Springs South High School.
In Independence, a Bridger Middle School student threatened over social media to bring a gun to school and harm a school staff member. Last month at Raytown South High School, police found a loaded gun in a student’s car — the second incident where police were called to the campus to search a student for bringing a loaded gun.
Most recently came the social media threat to “shoot up Wyandotte High School” in Kansas City, Kansas, on Monday.
Districts nationwide have reported a rise in threats, fights and other behavioral issues during this third pandemic school year. And the country is reeling after the deadly school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.
“Every time this happens, and it’s happened an unconscionable number of times around the country, your heart goes out to your colleagues because it’s a call that you never want to get,” Shawnee Mission school district spokesman David Smith said. “And it’s heartbreaking for those families, for that school community and the broader community. Kids should be able to go to school and be safe. That shouldn’t be something we have to worry about.”
Smith and other area school officials said they are constantly on high alert in the case of a potential act of violence. Districts have spent millions in recent years on security improvements in light of the increase in mass shootings. They have used bond issues, grants, tax dollars and other funding to reconstruct school entrances, hire extra school resource officers, add security cameras and metal detectors and more.
In Raytown, in response to recent incidents, the school board held two community forums for the public to speak about school safety.
“We’re more concerned about it than we’re pretending to be,” said Breanna Bonner, a Raytown South High School student who spoke at a forum. “I’ve had a lot of conversations with students who appear to be fine in classes. And outside when they come talk to me, they just start breaking down.”
She and classmate Christjin Bell said they were representing students living in an environment shrouded by gun violence, including the October shooting death of 17-year-old Michael Parks.
Bonner said that the school should be focused on prevention, such as holding community roundtables and connecting students with role models. She added that many students “do not feel that extra disciplinary measures should necessarily be taken. Because gun violence is a cycle of which students at our school already feel so criminalized, that they’re now beginning to act out criminalization.”
“We feel … we don’t have a say in how we’re taught and how we’re protected,” fellow Raytown South student Bell said. “It’s very important to students that they feel safe in their own schools, but also be respected.”
Samira Johnson, a parent and former president of the Raytown PTA Council, said at a forum last week that the spate of incidents involving guns “scares my kids, to be honest with you. But they’re also very nervous about telling.”
“I think our kids are really, really scared to be the ones” to report threats, she said, encouraging schools to improve communication so that students and others know how to anonymously and safely report threats.
Another parent, Beth Falkenstein, said the district should approach safety with a “resource based” approach, rather than a “stronger policing force approach, because the impact of getting children involved in the justice system at such an early age can have a profound impact on the trajectory of their life.”
Raytown school board president Alonzo Burton said the school board will take all of the community’s comments to plan next steps.
“We want to do what’s right for our community. We want to improve student achievement. And we want to make sure that our students and our staff and everyone in our community has an opportunity to reach their full potential and enjoy success,” he said at the first forum.
Smith, of Shawnee Mission, said that since the Michigan shooting, district officials have reviewed safety protocols to ensure everyone is prepared.
“We take it incredibly seriously. It’s our job and our responsibility to keep students and staff and families safe,” Smith said. “We’re going to continue to do anything we can to ensure that happens.”
Districts in both Missouri and Kansas have spent millions on school security, on everything from facial recognition video camera software to new door locks and communication systems.
A few years ago, the Fort Osage school district was the first in Missouri to include staff and teachers in “stop the bleed” medical training.
“We have an added (school resource officer) for the District, we are always updating and adding cameras, and working more (cooperatively) with law enforcement providing badge and camera access,” Fort Osage spokeswoman Stephanie Smith said in an email. “All Fort Osage staff have been training in Stop the Bleed and annually go through active shooter training. We continue to train staff to respond to a variety of situations they may encounter.”
District officials also emphasized that communication with the community remains crucial. Several of the recent threats against local schools were reported after community members or students saw social media posts or messages in school buildings.
Some other incidents are still under investigation. In many cases, authorities decided the threats weren’t credible.
Maggie Kolb, spokeswoman with the Olathe school district, said prevention involves the community.
“Those trusted relationships extend beyond the classroom to our Olathe families where we aim to keep an open line of communication with our families when safety situations and concerns arise,” she said.
Susan Hiland, spokeswoman with the North Kansas City district, said school officials have “been proactive by reaching out to students this year because of the many challenges they are facing during the pandemic. We’ve added more school resource deputies, we are offering more counseling resources and we are training students to recognize classmates who may be struggling.”
Officials with several other local districts declined or did not respond to The Star’s request for comment by deadline.
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
