Who should decide?

The ODE held a school safety summit in April in conjunction with Ohio first lady Frances Strickland to discuss school safety issues and communications with parents and guardians were a topic, he said, though there has been no recommendation. There will be regional summits held around the state to discuss the issue further, he said.

"Those are some of the hard issues that the state board wants to discuss and see if there is a need for a state policy," Benton said, adding that the board expects to see school safety recommendations at its September meeting.

For now, the matter is left to local boards, and some districts have been the target of criticism for how they communicated — or didn't communicate — with parents and guardians.

One of the problems with a policy is that each of these situations needs to be evaluated case by case.

"Every situation is different and you need to deal with them on an individual basis," said Carlisle Superintendent Tim McLinden. Carlisle school officials have discovered two threats in the last week on school property. One is suspected to be a copycat of the first incident because it is an almost identical copy of a message written on a bathroom wall at Chamberlain Middle School on Wednesday, according to police.

Carlisle officials met criticism and support from parents for the way they communicated the threat, sMcLinden said.

"I have spoken to numerous parents and once they are made aware of the facts, they have been supportive of my decisions," he said.

McLinden chose to keep students in school because the threat was "non-specific."

Officials discovered Wednesday morning that someone had written "Carlisle massacre 5-30-07 at 1 p.m." on a bathroom wall; however, the threat did not specify where the incident would take place, if it were a serious threat and not a prank, McLinden said.

"The threat was very much non-specific and with a non-specific threat the safest place for kids to be is where they are right now,"

he said.


The "safest place for kids to be" he is referring to is the school. Well, I wonder how many parents would have liked to make that decision on their own? Perhaps many parents would have figured out the "non-specific" threat. Come on, it said Carlisle... location. It even gave the date and time. How is that "non-specific"?

I suppose the next warning of a massacre better include a map.