I started getting a steady stream of messages from her, passing on what she'd been told (most important of which was that it was due to an incident not on-campus), but also talking about how some of the kids around her were having anxiety attacks and how she wasn't sure how best to comfort them, which is just the kind of compassionate thing I would expect from her.
Meanwhile, not being all panicky or anything like that, I started pulling up the Twitter feeds for her school, the district, the Denver Post, and the various TV news channels, hoping to find some info. I also pulled up the web pages for same. And watched my email.
Zip-nada-zilch.
At 12:11p, 9 News tweeted something. At 12:17p, CBS 4 tweeted something. Fox 31 followed at 12:22p. "Breaking stories" began to break on their web sites.
From the school or the district? Crickets chirping.
Turns out there had been a call to the police about a shooting at an office park a few miles west of the school. The two closest district schools (including Kay's former middle school) went to lock-in (which I guess is distinct from "lock-down," but the terminology has never been clearly defined for me).
The cops eventually cleared the buildings, finding nothing; they presume it was a hoax.
12:35p, the schools lock-ins were lifted.
At 12:35p, the district posted something on their web page, saying there had been an incident but everything was now cool and the kids were never in harm's way. Nothing ever popped up in the Twitter feed for the district, which apparently just mirrors major articles on the web page.
At 12:44p, an email went out to the district, updating everyone.
At 12:47p, the school Twitter account was updated, saying the lock-in was lifted, all's well, kids had been great.
So.
I pinged the school Twitter account, thanking them for the update, but noting it would have been nice to have had some sort of info, or at least notification of the lock-in when it happened, rather than "hearing about it on the streets," so to speak. If my daughter hadn't IMed me, after all, I might not have found out until well after the fact — or when I stumbled across it looking at a news feed at lunch.
The owner of the account noted that they had been focused on the kids and making sure they were safe — including shepherding a thousand kids who were outside into the building. Which, yeah, is totally legit and definitely the correct priority to have. But …
… there was nobody, absolutely nobody, at either the school or the district, who had access to those Twitter accounts (or the web pages, or the email system) who didn't have one minute to be able to post something with the bare bones of information?
And if not, why not?
I mean, sure, at the school, maybe. But at the district level? There's no communication plan, no coordination, nobody who's responsible for getting the word out to district parents, or to whom that authority can be delegated in an emergency if all the "important" people are busy ("Hey, Admin Assistant, I know I've told you not to use the district Twitter account because that's my job, but please get on there and post the following info …")? And if not, why not?
I mean, I'm not asking for detailed info, but the basics (even that, yes, a lock-in is going on at certain schools, due to an incident occurring on/off campus) would be helpful.
I don't think that's unreasonable. Looking at the news media, they were getting info from the district.
Perhaps I should contact the district Communications Director and ask.
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