Grand Rapids schools outline threat-response steps after social-media scares

At the Grand Rapids Public School District board meeting on Sept. 23 in Bigfork, Superintendent Gross responded to public questions about recent threats at the middle and high schools and detailed the district's procedures for evaluating and responding to such incidents. "Schools statistically are one of the safest place for kids to be," Gross said, then outlined steps the district takes when it learns of a threat: secure the building, involve law enforcement and conduct a fact-finding investigation.

Gross told the board that responses range from removing an individual student from class to locking down a building, depending on the investigation's findings. He said the district's security response includes the school resource officer (SRO) and close coordination with the Grand Rapids Police Department from the outset. "We start always by securing the security disorder," he said when describing the initial steps, and noted that subsequent investigation typically includes interviewing student witnesses, staff and families to assess the threat's credibility.

The superintendent also described limits on what the district can disclose because of student-privacy law. "We're dealing with minors, and our ability to share what our parents really want to know a lot of the time is limited," he said, adding that the district must avoid releasing information that could jeopardize an active law-enforcement inquiry.

Gross said the district has invested in threat-assessment training and teams at every school and is working to improve communications so parents understand what information the district can legally share and what steps families should expect. He described the challenge of policing social media in real time, saying false reports about weapons and arrests circulated during the recent episode and complicated the response. "We're trying to keep up with Snapchat and we're trying to keep up with Facebook," he said.

The superintendent said the district is drafting baseline communication materials to set expectations for families and to clarify what parents can expect after an incident while investigations proceed. No new district-level policy changes were adopted at the Sept. 23 meeting; the board discussed communications planning and after-action review as next steps.