EDITORIAL: Officials Handling Of Supposed "Threat" To Be Applauded

Virtually everyone in Edmonson County heard about a message written on a bathroom wall at Edmonson County High School last week. And thanks to the local TV station, ten other counties heard about it, too. Unfortunately, the more people get stirred up, there's more people watching local TV news. That gets more people stirred up, more people watch...the cycle escalates and soon you have mass hysteria.

Last Thursday, students at ECHS did a great job of posting everything under the sun on social media from how someone was going to "blow up the school" to "everybody's gonna die," due to the threatening message on the wall. Talk among students about the incident had spread like wildfire. Was this a reason for concern? ABSOLUTELY. 

School officials and local law enforcement stepped in IMMEDIATELY. Here's where the public and the TV newshounds got it wrong. These folks deal with situations every day that the rest of us don't. They're trained to understand, interact with, and help young people. They're trained when it comes to assessing situations and threats. The rest of us are NOT.

The principal, administration, the superintendent, and the school resource officer (which is the chief deputy at the sheriff's office) immediately began putting a plan in place. After a thorough investigation, it was determined by highly educated and trained professionals that our kids were safe at Edmonson County High School. There was no cancellation of classes that day, nor the next. 

The sheriff's office drove to the home of a suspect, did a through interview with a student and the student's parents, and after further investigation, it was confirmed that the threat was not credible.

The Edmonson Voice conducted interviews with both law enforcement and school officials. Through those interviews we learned what was written on the wall, but that information was given to us off the record. We were asked by school officials not to release that info because of fear it would cause massive panic when there was no need for that. The TV station chose to go the other route and make a far bigger deal about it than it was. Why do we say that? Because we trust our local officials. They have yet to give us a reason not to trust them with the lives of our kids.

The next day, over 200 students were absent from classes, and they were not excused. This means that either those students, their parents/guardians, or both, chose NOT TO TRUST THOSE OFFICIALS.

The bottom line is, if you don't trust school officials or law enforcement in this type of situation, why would you trust them anywhere? You should really consider moving your child to another school system where they obviously do a better job. Maybe you should home school your child, that way, you can assess the possibility of threats that might come your way.

Could this have been more serious? Yes, certainly, but because of immediate action taken by these officials, whatever "threat" that may have even had a remote chance of being viable became squashed immediately. 

Unfortunately, no one can guarantee that there'll never be a school shooting or other form of horrible tragedy at Edmonson County nor any other school, but the folks that make decisions here are trained to deal with these situations and we have to trust them. We use water out of our taps because statistics and professionals say it's safe to do so. We are inches away from death every time we drive a car, but we're not afraid because statistics and professionals tell us it's safe to do so. And we shouldn't be afraid to send our kids to school if statistics and professionals tell us it's safe to do so. 

Our law enforcement and school officials are not perfect. They will make mistakes. We've even been critical of the way some things have been handled by both organizations in past situations, but not when it comes to the safety of our kids. 

Thank you Edmonson County High School and Board of Education. Thank you, local law enforcement. We're all asleep in our homes when you folks are trying to make sure we keep doing that, and it's appreciated.