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Not that SHS

Perceived Salem threat targeted other school

SALEM — Attendance dropped at Salem city schools Thursday in the wake of a social media threat that wasn’t considered credible, but the police presence appeared to calm those who did show up.

“I think they really made the students feel at ease,” Salem High School principal Sean Kirkland said.

Salem police officers manned the doors when students and staff arrived at all the Salem schools Thursday morning, including the elementary schools and St. Paul School, spending the entire day chatting with students and walking the halls.

Police Chief J.T. Panezott said he talked to a lot of students at the junior high and high school, answering their questions and talking to them about social media and how they need to be careful.

“The mood of the students here is they’re fine,” he said.

A lot of parents and students weren’t fine Wednesday night when a post that’s now known as the SHS threat starting blowing up social media and burning the phone lines to the police department and school officials.

The post talked about bringing a gun to school and a follow-up post said “Yes SHS is the school I want,” unleashing concerns across the state in districts with those initials, like Salem.

According to published reports, a 16-year-old female student at Springfield High School on the west side of the state has been taken into custody in connection with the SHS threat. She faces felony charges of inducing panic in juvenile court.

Technology teams in the Salem school district and the Salem police department worked with Facebook security, along with the administration, and felt the alleged threat was not credible for Salem, but took action to help increase protection for the students and staff anyway by having officers at all the schools.

Panezott said that meant overtime for his department, noting it’s “expensive for us to do this, but we would do it again in a heartbeat.”

He said this was a good opportunity for some of the newer officers to become more familiar with the school buildings and said he enjoyed the time spent with students.

“Everybody knew what was going on, I think they were all well-informed,” he said.

Panezott touted the good relationship the police department shares with the school administration and Kirkland and Superintendent Dr. Joe Shivers echoed his words about how well they all work together. The group met late Wednesday night to plan their response and notified parents in an all-call procedure.

“Everybody was on the same sheet of music — it’s all about the kids,” Panezott said.

Shivers commented about the school population being down, with about 68 percent in attendance at the high school and 55 percent at the middle school or junior high. The numbers at the elementary schools were down, too, but not too bad. He said the police were great, the students were great and the staff members were great.

“In a stressful situation like that, that’s what you hope for, that’s what you pray for,” he said.

Kirkland was a little disappointed in the numbers, but said “as a parent, you understand the fear.”

He said the decision to have police at the schools, despite the belief that it was not a credible threat, wasn’t some “knee-jerk reaction” due to the Florida shooting or other recent events. He said they worked through their protocols and this type of situation is something the staff and police department have been working through for years in their training.

“Everything worked the way it was supposed to work,” he said.

Kirkland stressed that he couldn’t say enough about Panezott and the police department and their willingness to be at the schools to help the students and staff feel secure. Someone commented that it was probably the safest place to be in all of Ohio.

“It’s much appreciated,” he said.

mgreier@salemnews.net

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