Why should anyone expect the school to fall over itself to report a false alarm? We are talking about a 6 year old and a crank call, right?

Young children are so easily influenced. Young children that are allowed to have cell phones should be at a higher level of maturity so incidences like this won’t happen again. However, it must be said, that this really will be the parents issue to deal with, regardless of the school punishment.

I agree that parents should have been notified once the situation was fully under control. I personally would prefer to have 100% of the school staff and law enforcement focused on the situation at hand, the students and staff safety and the quick resolution of the issue then deal with the parents.

I am sure after this unexpected incident a better system will be put into place. Each crisis is a pathway to better ourselves, our responsiveness and repair. Powhatan School was lucky that this was a “false alarm” and as a community we should strive to make our county schools safer and response to issue like this stronger!

should he be arrested - no.  but i hope he’s been suspended and though we aren’t allowed to know, wish we could know which kid(s) did this.  wasn’t there another student invovled?  which one had the phone.  hope the parents learned a lesson as well.

okay, so that was very stupid of the student and we shall discipline him…but he is an elementary school student, a small child. Give him a break but dont do anything rash.

I was quite upset that I received a phone call from my husband on the way home from work as he was watching the news, and I had no clue as to what he was talking about.  The school system could have sent out a email/text letting parents know that everything was okay once the situation was under control.  They don’t have a problem sending out messages when schools are closed.

I never stated that phone calls should have been made at the time of the crisis - that’s not the issue and not the priority.  The first priority is the safety of everyone at the school.  I still believe that calls should and could have been made after-the-fact.  For a parent to hear about it the way they did and get a letter at the end of the day about the situation, in my opinion, was inadequate.

Guess what, the news media had this out before any calls could have been made!  School staff were busy trying to keep children safe and help police locate a possible weapon and/or child in danger.  By the time the situation was under control and the children were allowed in school the news had the information on their websites and on the air.  They have access to scanners and usually arrive at scenes before final resolutions have been made.  To expect personal phone calls is ridiculous.  Had it been a true emergency I am sure it would have been handled differently.

oops…i just re-read the the comments.  apparently the coffee had not kicked in and i mis-interpreted the Six hundred and sixty-six children comment.  please disregard my previous post.  so sorry!  if i could re-tract it, then i would.

You know, as soon as you start judging and calling children names, it comes back to you with a vengeance.  I am certain the child is not evil…and referring to him or her that way is really inappropriate.  Especially, from another “mom”.  You have no idea what your child may do some day.  I agree that discipline is in order…from the school and on the home front.  Hopefully, this will be a lesson to all of the children.  Praise God it was not a real threat!

I think parents should have been notified somehow.  Trust me…there was plenty of panick and frustration when they saw, heard and read about it online or got a call from someone who heard about it.  A letter home that evening isn’t good enough.  Over 600 kids - so what.  Calls could and should have been made.  Parents should NOT have heard about this second or third hand.  I understand it’s a lot work to make that call - so what.  Are you saying that the school didn’t want to deal with an “on slaught of attention” and therefore, parents didn’t deserve proper notification.  This ended up being a false alarm which is great news and I think the lock down portion was handled properly.  It’s the lack of communication that I have issues with.  Just because the school didn’t want to deal with panicked parents is not an excuse.  I understand what you are saying - I just do not agree.