Wanda Vanish

Superintendent Brad Hatch addresses teachers at 9 a.m. Friday morning prior to student arrival. Hatch assured teachers the threat had been investigated.

On Thursday Sept. 12, the Altoona Area School District alerted parents and students to an investigation into an alleged threat that was posted on social media and shared among students. Although it was found there was no active threat, the district decided to delay school by two hours to debrief staff.

During the debriefing, it was necessary to call for a shelter in place.

“Shelter in place means that you are to remain where you’re, and you are to lock doors and have no movement in the hallway,” Superintendent Brad Hatch said. “The reason that we did that is we had a report of an unidentified person in the building that nobody knew if they were to be here or not to be here. So until we were able to clear that threat and guarantee that that was not an issue, we went into an alert.”

The timing of that alert coincided with student arrival time.

“The timing of it was at 13 after nine; students were starting to gather,” Hatch said. “Buses are starting to drop off. I have staff gathered in the auditorium. We were getting ready to send them to their morning arrival places. And it was not safe to do so. It was safe for the people that were outside of the building to remain outside of the building. So we did have law enforcement, armed law enforcement officers, in those areas. Until we could identify who this person was and who we believed to be in the building, we did not want any movement within the building.”

An evacuation was considered.

“We wanted to take every precaution necessary,” Hatch said. “So at the time, the safest place for students to be, believe it or not, was where they were, in a highly visible area that was protected by law enforcement.” 

The threat was investigated and cleared, and students were free to enter the building.

“I didn’t realize there was a shelter in place happening,” sophomore Gianna Huber said. “We all thought the bag check people were just running late. We just didn’t know where they were. Then Mr. Palfey came outside and said there was a meeting, and that’s why they were running a little bit late.  They would bring us in as soon as they were ready.”

Attendance was impacted by the days events. According to Hatch, nearly 1000 high school students were absent, as well as about 750 junior high school students. 

“I get it,” Hatch said. “I have young kids myself, and I understand. I just want all of our staff and our students and our community to know that at no time would we ever put anyone in harm’s way. If we felt that there was any risk whatsoever of students coming to school, we would not hesitate to take other precautions other than what we did today.”

Although almost half of the school was absent, those students who did attend showed a wide range of different emotions. 

“I feel pretty neutral,” sophomore Baylin Smith said. “I don’t think we should be here today because of the threat and a two hour delay they announced at midnight and the shelter in place and everything else. I feel compelled to be here because I need to be in my classes, and I have to cheer at the football game, though.”

Although some students commented about making the day a Flexible Instruction Day (FID), that was not possible due to the timing of the threats.  FID days must be announced during the school day and called prior to 6 p.m.

“If we felt that in any way, shape or form, there was a health or safety risk to anybody, we would cancel school like that,” Hatch said.  “I would have never brought people here if we felt that there was any possibility of a concern.”

To make students, staff and faculty be as safe as possible, security was increased, which was accomplished during the two hour delay. 

“The decision to have a two hour delay was based on the fact that the investigation extended into the late evening, early morning, so it was about 1 a.m. when things wrapped up,” Hatch said.  “It was decided that it would be best to do a two hour delay so that we could debrief with our staff members, so that they would have the information that they needed to be able to support students when they arrived at school.”  

“I feel pretty safe because there are police officers all around the school and we have to lock all the classroom doors,” freshmen Keiyanah Pierce said. “It just feels like a normal day.” 

“All of the threats that have been happening to the school and not seeing as many police officers make me feel unsafe in general,” freshmen Nevaeh Hegedus said. 

“I came to school today because there is a football game against Central Dauphin,” junior Ty-Kear Davis said. ”If I wasn’t in school, I couldn’t play. My mom didn’t want me to come to school today.”

Those students who were responsible for the threat have since been identified, and the consequences which they are to face are being determined. 

“On a day like this, the safest place in the city, in the county, is where you are [the school],” teacher Eric Zolnak said. 

A major reason for the district being able to address the threat and respond with heightened security was thanks to sites like Safe2Say, the 946-TIPS line, and direct tips to law enforcement and district officials. 

“We literally get tons of tips every day,” Hatch said. “Even in the midst of what we were dealing with last evening, we still responded to at least eight separate self harm-type tips where we had to actively check up on and do safety checks of students, where there was something reported about a self harm concern, a cutting concern, an ideation type concern. I firmly believe that mechanism of reporting has helped us save student lives, and really prevented tragedies from happening. There’s no such thing as over-reporting.”

Parent, student and teacher information is vital to the school community. 

“I would like students to know first and foremost, that their safety is and will always be our number one priority, and that anytime that there is something that we need to investigate or look into, we encourage communication,” Hatch said. “The only way that we can get ahead of things and try to be proactive in addressing issues is if we have free communication between the home and the students in the school. Nothing should be dismissed, and we really thank all of our students and families that did report a concern so that we could look into things and get information.”

Hatch hopes to continue to educate everyone about reporting.

“Educating students on responsible reporting and what that looks like in terms of not always just forwarding a post or a screenshot,” Hatch said. “Even elaborating or turning something into something or spreading misinformation can be as damaging as posting negative information. So misinformation is a real problem. It makes it more difficult to get to the bottom of issues when there’s a lot of misinformation.”

Everyone in the school community was affected by the day’s events.

“Staff were nervous,” Hatch said. “Understandably, they’re human as well. They’re just like the kids, like anyone else. Our administrative team obviously responded right away. Our law enforcement within the building responded right away. We actually had the chief of the Altoona Police Department here when that (the shelter in place) happened. We just wanted to make sure, make people feel comfortable that we are making sure that this is a safe environment.”

Hatch also understands the importance of putting preventative measures in place due to his time visiting Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 

“It was moving, to say the least, but also a reminder that that type of tragedy can hit any community at any time and the importance of being proactive and always trying to stay ahead of concerns,” Hatch said. “That was an incident that happened from a student having some mental health issues and really just kind of went off the deep end one morning, and it led to the death of over 20 people in a very short amount of time. So anytime I can learn from other school districts, I’m always going to take advantage of that and just pay my respects to the memories and lives of the people that perished that day.”

As schools across the nation deal with safety concerns, Hatch remains vigilant.

“Our motivations and our decision making will always, first and foremost, be driven by student safety and security, always, no matter what,” Hatch said. “We collaborate with really good professionals that know what they’re doing. We study and try to learn from other scenarios that have happened, and we try to make sure that we’re always making the best decision possible. Do we get it right 100% of the time? Probably not, but I hope that people trust that that is always our motivation.”