Lockport Township High School superintendent addresses outbreak of school threats

Lockport — Lockport Township High School District 205 Superintendent Dr. Robert McBride appeared Saturday on ABC 7 Chicago’s “Our Chicago” program to discuss the recent spike of online threats made against schools across Will County that turn out to be false.

In the last month, Lockport Township High School, Joliet West High School, Plainfield School District 202 and Providence Catholic High School have all experienced threats of violence on social media. All of the threats were ultimately deemed unfounded by law enforcement.

McBride emphasized that school districts have no choice but to take every threat seriously.

“We have to take it seriously,” McBride said. “We do not have the luxury of assuming it’s a hoax.”

Lockport Township High School’s buildings were placed on lockdown on Sept. 27 after a social media threat lead staff and students to believe a student at East Campus could have a weapon. The threats were investigated by campus security and Lockport police and were ultimately deemed to be unfounded.

McBride noted that the majority of the threats that have caused local lockdowns in recent months have come from the internet, instead of in-person suspicions, something McBride said made them harder to track.

“This fall, the threats have primarily been made online, which makes it harder for us and for law enforcement to detect the source,” he said in the “Our Chicago” discussion.

For this reason, he said the district has worked to “create a culture of reporting” amongst its students.

“Our students are on social media all the time, every platform you can think of,” McBride said. “We focus on building a culture of reporting, so students can report things they’re concerned about that they see to a teacher, administrator, or other people they trust in the building, or we have an app called Crisis Go which they can use to report something suspicious. And that is the most important reconnaissance we can get.”

In addition to relying on students to report potentially dangerous situations, McBride said on “Our Chicago” the district also works with a consulting firm that monitors social media for mentions of the district and can report if something looks like a credible threat to one of the schools.

McBride suggested it makes certain sense that the rise in threats coincides with the start of the school year as students are being brought back together, allowing them to potentially reconnect and influence each other’s choices, sometimes negatively.

“The cellphones and social media are available instruments for anyone who wants to create disruption or distress to cause panic with,” he said on the program.

Finally, McBride implored parents not to come to campus unless instructed to if their child’s school is in a lockdown situation.

“I’m a parent,” McBride said. “I know it’s a normal, natural reaction to go to your child, but it creates disruption and has the potential to create an even more unsafe situation.”

McBride noted that the presence of parents during a lockdown can create a distraction for first responders who are trying to maintain control within the building, or block access for emergency vehicles.

“In our case we had parents blocking some of the entrances and exits, and it’s not unusual for students or staff to have anxieties which manifest as physical things in these situations,” McBride said. “We had two students start having seizures during our lockdown. We had to call 911 and the ambulances were having a hard time accessing those students as they were having seizures.”

McBride also cautioned parents against texting their children to do anything other than listen to the directions of teachers and first responders.

“Imagine law enforcement is sweeping the building, they’re on high alert, they don’t know if it’s a hoax, they don’t know if it’s real, a child comes out of a classroom and comes running down a hallway ... the consequences could be something we don’t want,” McBride said.