Clearview Regional District open one day after threat
Clearview Regional’s calendar for a week in mid-March saw many changes — fast.
A walkout and other activities to take place within the school on March 14 were planned in honor of the 17 students and staff gunned down in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
Clearview’s plans were dashed, though, as a threat to the district came in at approximately 11:30 p.m.,Tuesday, March 13.
In a press release issued by the Harrison Township Police Department, it read, in part, “the Harrison Township Police Department received an anonymous tip involving a threat at the Clearview Regional High School District. The Harrison Township Police Department, along with other local, county and state agencies, worked through the night and is still looking into the source of the threat. As a precautionary measure, school district officials closed the school on Wednesday, March 14.”
At the time of press deadline, law enforcement did not release any further information.
Hours before the threat, the district drafted a letter to Clearview families detailing what was essentially a compromise stemming from a long discussion held during the February Board of Education meeting when Anna Kilpatrick, a Clearview student, stated students felt Clearview’s administration was not in favor of students partaking in the national walkout movement.
At one point, Kilpatrick said students should be able to “protest laws or lack thereof.”
A debate involving board and audience members carried on for more than an hour, and while multiple opinions were heard, the atmosphere remained civil.
Superintendent John Horchak said during the debate, “I didn’t want the misinformation to be out there that we are not supporting this effort, because I think we are. There are different ways to achieve the same end,” he said referencing conversations with local law enforcement centered around hesitation to allow students to walk out of the building on a publicized date, time and location.
The March 13 letter from the district begins, “As you know, there is a national movement for a student ‘walkout’ in the response to the tragedy in Parkland, Fla. Clearview Regional, like other schools across the country, plans to honor the victims. We are incorporating several activities toward this goal, which include a student-produced video with biographies of the 17 victims, a ‘Walk Up’ initiative in which students are encouraged to perform random acts of kindness for 17 people, and ongoing discussion in class. Many Clearview students have inquired about being able to participate in the walkout, which will last 17 minutes (one minute for each victim).”
The letter continues to state school districts are responsible for the safety of all students and “are not able to endorse any political ideals over others.”
Referencing a policy that denies students the chance to “disrupt the educational environment or leave the building during the school day,” the letter reads, “However, as a one-time occurrence and in an effort to to support students’ voices, Clearview Regional will permit students to participate [in the walkout], if that is their choice. While our preference is for the students to remain in the building, we recognize that a portion of the student body will opt to participate in a walkout.”
The district did not disclose to the public the location of where the students would be able to leave the building and protest.
The letter was deemed moot as the district shut down due to the threat.
On Thursday, March 15, the doors to Clearview opened for a normal school day.
“I think anybody who could of been present today would have been impressed with not just law enforcement’s response in general, but how our students responded and how our staff helped us facilitate a normal academic day,” Horchak, reflecting on that school day said.
The superintendent stressed the impressive speed of law enforcement — local, county and state — saying the departments “truly have been incredibly responsive and supportive with very timely responses and allocation of resources to help us work through this problem.”
Horchak was adamant this event “is not the the only driving factor behind our efforts to improve safety.”
A safety meeting was scheduled on March 7; however, the weather caused a cancellation and the meeting was rescheduled for March 15, the day after the threat. Horchak said, “the incident happened between those meetings,” stressing the district, even before this event, puts safety above everything.
He stated the March 14 shut down has “no relationship between what we’ve been trying to do. It brought more attention to it.”
The district has implemented multiple safety measures in recent years, including the addition of the lobby guard that was implemented this year. All visitors to the school enter through the main entrance and are required to hand their driver’s license through the window to the guard who then scans it, initiating a police background check. That person must detail the name of the person he/she is intending to meet, and that person then comes to the lobby to meet the visitor.
“Little things are just as important as the big things,” Horchak said.
Among other safety measures, he mentioned the video surveillance of the school buildings that can be live streamed by local law enforcement.
While Clearview remained safe in the looming face of potential danger on March 14, Horchak said “we still want to remain cognizant of our district’s security. We can’t let our guard down; we live in an era where we need to be vigilant.”
