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The Leavenworth Unified School District has introduced a new reporting tool it hopes will help better streamline information about school threats.
An 18-year-old is now in custody after making a threat toward Leavenworth High School for Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Following that incident, the district created See Something, Say Something, a link for students, parents and community members to submit a form with questions or concerns about a school threat.
There is a heading on the USD 453 site that reads 'See Something, Say Something,' and on a phone, it can be found by clicking on the top, right-hand corner.
The form does require a first and last name, but anyone filling out the form is not obligated to reveal who they are, the district ensures.
"The reality is, we are often times some of the last to get that information, and as you know, that’s the critical piece that kicks off our investigation, our forwarding, our communication with law enforcement, etc.," said Kellen Adams, the superintendent of the Leavenworth Unified School District.
Adams says the goal of the See Something, Say Something site is two-fold.
"To streamline the process, to get the information into the hands of the school district sooner, and two, it creates this safe space," Adams said.
Adams says he knows it can be daunting for students to come forward, but he also knows they’re the ones who know a lot.
"If we can glean from that population, I believe we can improve upon our processes, improve upon our efficiency and ultimately our communication," Adams said.
As a grandparent in the district, Theresa Hill knows knows what it’s like to see threats circulating.
“It’s very scary,” Hill said.
There’s a place Hill uses to stay in the know.
“It’s social media, it’s letters that have gone home to parents, and the parents are actually posting the letter on the Leavenworth neighborhood site,” Hill said.
It’s the same place Adams says information circulates quickly.
“Generally speaking, parents and or the broader community know about it before it’s ever been forwarded to a school official,” Adams said.
Adams says the steps the district takes when it receives a threat are first communicating with law enforcement, next seeing if there’s a need to increase the current lockdown level and then communicating information to families and the public.
“Primary themes of feedback I get is, 'the district did not share enough,' or 'the communication was not timely enough,'" Adams said. “We’d rather be a little bit later and accurate versus too early and inaccurate.”
Not every threat is legitimate, but legally, threats are assessed the same.
“We have to make sure that there are consequences for doing that action,” said Todd Thompson, Leavenworth County Attorney. “For our sake, criminally, those are the same. That is a factor of you’re committing a threat, and we’re going to have to take that seriously.”
Thompson says he sees threats made for a variety of reasons, even as trivial as not wanting to go to school that day. The consequences, however, are not.
"It’s a very serious felony, and depending their age or criminal history, they’re looking at possible incarceration to probation," Thompson said.
Adams doesn’t want to take any chances and plans to treat all threats the same.
“My concern is, if you begin to see this everyday, it becomes a thing of, ‘Oh, I know that’s fake too,'" he said.
The responses to the See Something, Say Something form are monitored 24/7, even outside of school hours.
Hill says it’ll take a level of trust on everyone’s part to make sure a reporting tool like this is effective.
“If some other student knows that someone has said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a gun, I’m gonna go shoot up the school,’ report it,” Hill said. “If you see something, say something."
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