The Public School System plans to revisit its agreement with the Department of Public Safety on placing school resource officers on campuses following a shooting threat that forced Kagman High School into lockdown and lockout Wednesday morning, Sept. 2.
Acting Education commissioner Jacqueline Che said government funding constraints ended DPS’ deployment of school resource officers, or SROs, but Wednesday’s incident underscored the need to revisit the arrangement.
“There’s a huge need, and we're very grateful for DPS last year for assigning school resource officers around our campus. Unfortunately, due to funding constraints for the government, they're not able to deploy that anymore. It is something that we're going to have to revisit,” Che said.
“We do need our SROs on campus, and we do need to have eyes and ears on our students, so that's something that the DPS commissioner and I will bring back to the table,” she added.
Che and Kagman High acting principal Francisca Bondoc spoke with the media following a Kagman High leadership meeting held after the incident at the school’s administrative office.
According to PSS, it received information regarding a reported school shooting threat at approximately 6:44am Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Kagman High initiated a lockdown and lockout at approximately 7am to protect students, staff, and others on campus, while DPS responded to provide patrol support, guidance, and investigate the threat.
Earlier in the morning, PSS said students being dropped off by car were sent home, while students arriving by bus were to be evacuated to a safe zone as authorities investigated the reported threat. DPS said the alleged threat had been made through social media.
At one point, DPS said investigators were interviewing a person who might have information regarding the threat, while the school remained under lockout pending further developments.
The all-clear was issued at approximately 9:48am, and normal school operations resumed for the remainder of the day. PSS said there was no ongoing threat and all students and staff were safe.
Che said PSS activated its emergency response immediately after learning of the threat and coordinated with DPS.
“We immediately activated our emergency response and worked very closely with DPS to respond to that threat,” she said.
Che said threats of this nature have occurred previously, particularly around the beginning of a school year, but PSS can control how quickly and effectively it responds.
“We want to respond to it in such a way where for families, for parents, right? Letting them know that we take every threat very seriously,” she said.
Che said PSS has standard operating procedures for such incidents and can deploy its mental health team to help the school community.
“It's something that we can't control every year, but it's our response that we can control. I think every time this happens, we are better. We respond quicker,” she said.
Bondoc, meanwhile, urged parents to discuss the seriousness of making threats with their children.
“This kind of situations, we really take it seriously. There are consequences that are going to be administered,” Bondoc said. “I just want parents to have that conversation with their children that this is something that we don't take lightly.”
Che also said there can be consequences regardless of who is responsible for making a threat.
“I think it's very important regardless of whether the person making a threat is a student, an employee, or someone outside the school community, that they know that everything, there's always a consequence,” she said.
Che said DPS would determine any consequences under the law, while PSS has its own internal measures when applicable.
As of 3:30pm Wednesday, DPS public information officer Fred Sato said there was no update identifying who made the latest threat.
Asked by Marianas Press about the outcome of previous bomb or shooting threat investigations involving schools, Sato said DPS also had no updates it could provide.
“No updates on the previous incidents. If matter involve a juvenile, then that becomes a matter sealed by the courts,” Sato said in a social media message to Marianas Press.
PSS said families would receive any additional information through Infinite Campus.
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