An open letter to students
Dear students,
Since the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 of your contemporaries, some students have responded in the most disappointing way.
While your peers in Florida lobbied lawmakers, trying to make a change, some students have chosen to capitalize on this tragedy by writing fake threats in their schools.
Near Greene County, the districts of Albert Gallatin, Frazier, Brownsville, Uniontown Area and Connellsville Area in Fayette County; Ringgold, Charleroi Area and Beth Center in Washington County and Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County have all fallen prey to this disturbing trend. And those are just the ones of which we are aware.
While no reports of activities such as these have been publicized in Greene County, we ask all of our local students to think about the ramifications of doing such a thing.
We are hoping that your district administrators have informed you that making bogus threats isn’t a funny prank. It disrupts education and costs the police tasked with thoroughly investigating them man hours that could be dedicated to other cases.
It is our hope that you know this already, though.
To those students who have thought about doing something like this: If having educational disruptions and forcing police to respond to these threats doesn’t stop you from making them, perhaps you will think about the feelings of your peers. Consider this an open, public appeal to think about the other students in your buildings.
There is no doubt that the road young people must now walk is more difficult than it was 20 or 30 years ago. You live in a world of immediacy; of constant (usually bad) news; of divisive politics and of increased knowledge and forced maturity about the harsh realities of the world. A school day, for some, represents normalcy and an escape from all of that.
These threats turn school into a place of anxiety. There are likely a lot of children who won’t openly acknowledge that they now carry worry and fear with them into the classroom five days a week. They certainly don’t want to seem uncool, but we guarantee you, many are struggling.
Some are worried they won’t come home, that they’ll have to huddle together behind a desk, hoping they won’t get shot. They’re memorizing their hiding places, class by class, and keeping a wary eye on those around them. They’ve been forced to decide whether they want to report concerns, and have their peers ridicule them and accuse them of overreacting to the threats.
As adults, most of us cannot imagine the stress those students feel. It wasn’t the high school environment in which we were raised.
The strength many of you are now forced to have is difficult to comprehend, and we want you to know that those of you who go to school anxious are not alone. Many of your classmates, regardless of whether they are vocal about it, share your fears.
We assure you that school administrators and police are taking these threats seriously. Many of your classmates who make these threats are being charged criminally, through the juvenile justice system. Those who are 18 or older are being charged as adults.
If we could create a world where you didn’t see your peers led away in handcuffs, we would; however, the decision to write these threats is not ours.
Bogus threats are not a joke. Causing fear in your fellow students is not a punchline. Their anxiety is not funny.
We implore any student considering writing a threat to think about not only that, but also about themselves, and the criminal record that could follow them for the rest of their lives.
This must stop.
Sincerely,
Your community