On Oct. 26, Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District Superintendent Peter Smith sent the following letter to J-D families and staff.
Dear J-D families and staff,
The Town of DeWitt Police Department has brought to our attention a social media post circulating the country that threatens harm at a school. The threat involves someone creating a fake Snapchat account and modifying a template to make it seem like an actual threat at a specific school. Multiple police agencies across the country have investigated these social media postings, and no credible threats have been uncovered.
We are not aware of this happening here at J-D, but since it is becoming a trend nationally and has already happened at some New York school districts, we wanted to make you aware of it so that you can stay vigilant. If you see, or a student tells you that they have seen a threat being directed at one of our J-D schools, please reach out to your student’s building principal, me or DeWitt police so that we may investigate.
We take any threat seriously and are grateful to have the support of the Town of DeWitt Police Department in determining whether we need to take action. We are constantly evaluating our safety and security protocols and are thankful that our students have shown in the past that they know to come forward when they see or hear of something that is concerning.
The district has a number of safety and security measures in place, including interior and exterior security cameras at each school and each building has a single point of entry where visitors must check in with office staff. In addition, the district has a long-standing close relationship with the Town of DeWitt Police Department. Our school resource officer is a DeWitt police officer who spends the bulk of his time at the high school but does visit our other schools throughout the school year.
At this time, we are asking parents to please closely monitor your child’s social media usage and discuss the seriousness of making any threat, which could result in both school-related disciplinary action and criminal charges. Please reinforce with them the message we share at school, which is if they see something concerning, they should tell someone.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Peter Smith