Unspecified threat to Mount not known to college visitors

By Owen Boss

GARDNER— The day before the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, a message was found written in a stall of one of the downstairs bathrooms at Mount Wachusett Community College. The school reacted quickly, using their campus-wide connection system to send out automated phone messages and e-mails to all students and faculty members at the college, however the only way that visitors to the campus would have known of the threat was an automated message left on the campus’s switchboard. As a result, the notification system allegedly failed to notify the parents of more than a 100 children attending a theatre performance at the college that day. School officials for the Naragansett Regional School District have some concerns regarding the current warning system in place at the college because while it is effective at warning faculty and staff of increased threat levels, it is less effective when considering guests to campus. The limited ability to warn guests of the college troubled Narragansett Regional School District Superintendent Dr. Stephen Hemman, who said that officials at both schools acted according to the procedures they currently have in place. “After receiving a phone call from concerned parents, we made a phone call to the college and spoke with them on two different occasions in order to find out whether or not the situation posed a viable threat. They informed us that they were currently informing people that there was a threat on campus, but because the threat was nonspecific, officials felt that with the increased security there wasn’t enough threat to justify shutting down the entire campus,” Dr. Hemman said. “We are going to have to have a discussion with the college,” added Dr. Hemman, “It isn’t just Mount Wachusett that deals with these issues, any college has to worry about how to handle these situations.” In response to the threat, Dr. Hemman said he would have cancelled the field trip in a second if he thought there was any danger posed to the children or himself. “I went to the Mount Wachusett campus that day, and I am not a man who takes chances,” said Dr. Hemman. According to Dr. Hemman, he met with campus police to discuss the safety on campus, and plans to meet with college officials to determine what the procedures will be in the future to notify visitors of the campus of any potential threat. Dan Asquino, president of Mount Wachusett Community College, said that the system that the school has in place was utilized that morning to notify all students and faculty members at the college of an increased threat level. “We saw what we thought was a nonspecific threatening message written in a bathroom stall on one of the lower floors of our college,” said Dr. Asquino. “We did what we normally do, we alerted all faculty and staff with our connection system, and because we alerted them at their home addresses, email addresses, and contact telephone numbers on file, some may have been alerted three or four different times.” The alert system used by the college is meant primarily to warn students and faculty, and for outside visitors to the campus, it is up to them to decide whether or not to come. “You have to take all of these things seriously, and I think that’s what we did.” said Dr. Asquino. “A number of the visiting schools contacted us, and we gave them the necessary information, at that point it became their responsibility to make a decision.” Dr. Asquino added that when dealing with a threat the only procedure for notifying guests is an announcement placed on the college’s switchboard. “What we do is we put it on the switchboard so if anyone calls in, they will be alerted immediately,” said Dr. Asquino, “Unless they call ahead of time they wouldn’t know until they reached campus.” A concerned parent of a student at the elementary school, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution to their children, said that although the college was contacted, and the decision was made by officials at the elementary school to continue with the field trip as planned, they did not feel the decision was the school’s to make. “We as parents were robbed of our right to make an informed decision on our children’s behalf,” said a concerned parent. “It was not a decision for the elementary school to make, when you are dealing with college students who are of age to make informed decisions for themselves, a campus-wide notification system is effective. However, when dealing with elementary students, the decision must be made by the parents of the children, not the principal of the school.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 4/19/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 94)