Comment left by Parent On Bennett Middle School Facebook page

Daniel Hill 
Mrs. Nathan,
Rather than try to save face and down play how these events ACTUALLY effected our children, why don’t you tell us all really what happened. Why don’t you tell the truth about the inadequacy of your staff to control the situation. Why don’t you tell the truth about this county’s lackadaisical approach to handling threats of mass violence. Why don’t you tell us all how standardized test scores are the forefront of your priorities and not trying to pace with other school systems in placing standard operating procedures in place that are PROVEN tactics to minimize injury and loss during actual events. Why don’t you just come out and call our kids liars and tell us they shouldn’t feel their emotions because you say all is ok. How can our kids grow and learn if they don’t feel safe? Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you can’t move forward with personal growth, nor learn without a feeling of security.

I’m going to tell you one thing right now, I believe my son over you and any of your staff. These children have no reason to lie about these events. Are there inaccuracies in their accounts? Absolutely, it happens to any person in a high stress situation. Memories can be hard to recall or completely fabricated due to the power of suggestion. But what I can tell you is these kids were scared to death. And don’t you dare say their fear came from seeing police arrive. Because not one single kid claimed their fear manifesting from the arrival of only a couple of officers. Their fear came from the text message that was sent. There were children at the dance that received the threatening message DIRECTLY!! And of course other kids found out. One of my sons friends broke down crying in a corner and when they approached to inquire why he showed one of the kids the text that threatened to “shoot up the school”. So stop blowing smoke up our behinds.

And to say you “directly communicated” is a BOLD FACE LIE!!! It wasn’t until 20:40 that your administration sent out that garbage message, not a single call that stated to collect the children as the dance was ending early. You ended the dance due to a threat of violence and the ONLY reason my wife knew to collect my son was because HE texted her and said “come get me, the dance is over because something happened and the cops are coming”. Then minutes later he calls frantic because a police officer and staff is rushing them BACK INTO THE BUILDING!! Saying they heard what they thought were gunshots. And then said they were ushered to the 7th and 8th grade wings for “safety”. So please tell me what prompted this is everything was A OK? So NO you didn’t communicate with anyone!! Our children wore the burden of calling parents and telling them to pick them up. And the environment he described, I would be ashamed as an administrator, a “professional”, to have allowed to transpire. You have parents stating when they picked up their children there were kids running around outside, crying and scared, but I guess that’s all rumor and fabrication as well? Not a single person has motivation to fabricate anything except for you and staff members. Because you can’t have parents losing faith in your ability to keep our kids safe. So I would seriously stop trying to downplay these events. You and others at your level always have the “it wasn’t anything” stance. One of these days our children’s health or lives will pay the price because you lack the wherewithal and motivation to formulate a plan to handle these situations. But I do believe you have a large group of parents who are not buying your statements and will demand action and change!!

For gods sake you still teach fire drills where students exit the classrooms and building. Yet law enforcement has been teaching for half a decade how that’s improper. Because as one mass shooter already did, he used the fire alarm to summon people from their classrooms to the line of fire.

I feel really sorry for you that you feel just in your statement. It’s a sad state of affairs when you feel confident enough in your inability to control, maintain, and protect our children from threats, hollow or real, that you will take to social media and apply that proverbial trowel to smooth things over. What you are missing is that our kids are now terrified to return to your building. Some of these kids directly received the threat, and now you have the audacity to try and minimize this. I really hope you are ready for the flames you are fanning. Because I’ve already been contacted by a few elected officials after they saw my other comments. They want to speak to my son, and want to speak to his friends. And I will give them unimpeded access to interview him, because it seems they don’t even believe this story you’re selling. This doesn’t become all better just because you say so. My son experienced something no kid should ever have to. And I can tell you it was genuinely traumatic. I got home after my shift this morning, and found my family camped out in the living room, he refused to sleep upstairs last night. When I touched his shoulder to wake him, as I do almost every morning, he jumped up from a dead sleep, ready to flee. But don’t worry I’ll read him your letter, tell him his fear is false, and what happened was just an emotionally charged fallacy and I’m sure it will make him feel all better.

This is the final time I will engage or address your comments. My next stop is to the Board of Education. And if they want to take the same “who cares” approach that you have, I’ll go higher. It’s time for you to wake up, stop cashing a paycheck, and commit half of the BS you push into developing a plan of action to adequately contain and control these events. Oh and it would have been a semisweet gesture to say “and we plan to have grief counselors available to your children next week to help them process their feelings following this stressful situation”. But don’t do it now, you already announced to the world that all is well because only the police scared the kids and, meh it was nothing...