KANE — At Thursday’s workshop meeting, Kane Area School District Superintendent issued a statement about reports of an alleged threat of violence received on Wednesday.
Rumors rampant on social media Wednesday night indicated someone had threatened a school shooting at Kane Area High School on Thursday.
In her statement, Kearney said, “The district takes any such threat very seriously and, upon becoming aware of the threat, the district’s administration immediately notified law enforcement in conjunction with its own investigation.”
Kearney went on continued, “Law enforcement investigated the matter, spoke with the individual involved and assessed whether an actual threat to safety of the school environment existed. The administration elected to have a law enforcement presence on school property on March 30, 2017 as a precautionary measure and to best ensure the safety of its students and staff while information was still being gathered.”
Late Wednesday night a message was posted to the Kane Area School District website with the headline, “Student/Employee Safety”. The message read, “Hello, to clarify the concerns for the safety of our students and employees, the KASD would like to assure you that both state and local police are aware of this situation and will be present in the morning when students are arriving to school. Student safety is our number one concern. Thank you and goodbye.”
Kearney went on to say that the school’s notification system was used to send out a message to parents Wednesday night followed by an update in the afternoon on Thursday.
“I did send out a text on the call system last night at ten-to-eleven to alert the parents,” said Kearney. “I know that may have caused a little more concern from parents that did not know this was going on, but I felt it was very necessary to let the parents know because on social media there was some misinformation and some concerns. I felt it was very necessary to send out that first text.”
Reading from her statement, Kearney added, “Wednesday nights’ message pertained to an alleged threat of violence that the district became aware of. The district notified local law enforcement, who investigated the threat in conjunction with the district. It has been determined that a police presence is no longer necessary and that parents can safely send their children to school.”
On a side note after reading her statement, Kearney added that approximately 29 percent of the student body was absent from school Thursday due to parents’ concern. She added that students that were out will not be given an illegal absence due to their “parents’ prerogative to keep them home.”
Other projects presented to the school board workshop for approval at the regular board meeting next week were approval of a paving plan estimated at $80,000 to $90,000 that would cover the main entrance and front loop of the high school, approval of a wireless system access upgrade and expansion for the high school with an estimated cost of $10,000, 80 percent of which would be covered by an E-rate program bringing the districts’ cost to around $2,500 and the transition from a server-based email program to a cloud-based one this Friday after 4 p.m.
Technology Director Mark Candalor added that the change could potentially cause email communication outages over the weekend but was confident that the system would be live on Monday and added that the switch could save the district $10,000 to $15,000 annually.
The next regularly scheduled Kane Area School District board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. April 6 in the Middle School auditorium.
