Three family members told the Morton Community Unit School District 709 Board of Education on Sept. 2 that they are worried about the district’s handling of repeated threats and violent behavior at Jefferson Elementary School. They said the district did not notify families promptly and did not involve the school resource officer until after several incidents.

Mary Thacker, a Jefferson grandparent, told the board that “a student has made multiple gun threats at this school.” She said the first two threats were directed at individual children and that "the parents of these two students notified the school principal and were assured everything was taken care of." Thacker said the student was allowed to remain in school and that the district resource officer was not notified until a later, third threat.

Parent Ally Witzig Onken told the board she learned of a bus threat during the second day of school and then of a third threat communicated Friday evening when the same student allegedly said he would bring a gun "today" and named specific children he intended to shoot. Onken said she emailed Principal Adolfsson, who responded promptly, but that the response did not outline what steps the school would take. Onken said she chose not to send her children to school the following day and that families who had been told about the threats received no proactive, timely communication from the school.

Both commenters said they felt the district’s communication and response were insufficient for threats of this kind. Thacker asked the board: "How many gun threats must occur in this school before we will consider action?"

Speakers at the meeting described delayed involvement of the school resource officer and said some parents were not interviewed by law enforcement after earlier incidents. Onken said the first school-wide notice about the incident arrived at 3 p.m. the day of the alleged threat, after school had been dismissed.

The board moved to a closed session later in the meeting for “student discipline, purchase or lease of property, as well as personnel performance.” The board’s motion to enter closed session was approved on a recorded vote; no further public action or detail about investigations was announced at the meeting.

The public commenters asked for clarity about reporting protocols and for more transparent, timely communications to families when safety threats occur. They also urged the district to explain what procedures it uses to determine when to notify law enforcement and families.

The district did not make any additional statements at the meeting beyond what was on the agenda; Superintendent remarks and any staff responses beyond the public commenters were not part of the public record at the time the commenters spoke.