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Unsubstantiated, Not Credible, But Serious: Aberdeen Alarmed by School-Violence Rumor

A vague scribble on a bathroom wall turned into 20% of the Aberdeen Central High School student body staying home yesterday.

The threat, rumored to be something about someone killing somebody this week, elicited this contradiction in terms from Aberdeen Central principal Dr. Jason Uttermark in a call to parents before school Tuesday:

“CHS administration and the Aberdeen Police Department are aware of and have been investigating an unsubstantiated threat,” the message from Uttermark began. “The threat itself was a jotting in the girls’ bathroom and was very vague in nature.

“The threat, although lacking credibility, is being taken very seriously” [Katherine Grandstrand, “Some Stay Home, But Central High School Classes Go on After Vague Threat,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.10.28].

The Aberdeen Police Department used the same language in a Facebook post: “…we were aware of a threat, that although lacking in credibility, was being taken seriously.”

Let’s use words with meaning: Taking a threat seriously deems it credible. We cannot logically use the two phrases the principal and the police are using in the same sentence. Splicing them together with although is like Donald Trump saying, Although I have nothing against Hispanics, they should keep their anchor babies in Guatemala. (Dana Ferguson heard Trump talk “anchor babies” in Sioux City last night.)

Alas, rumor becomes reality:

Twenty percent of high school students were gone Tuesday. That compares with just five percent on a typical day. Sophomore Brandon Lout stayed away, saying he was worried.

“You just never know,” Lout said. “Rumors could be fake or true so you just want to take that extra precaution” [Erich Schaffhauser, “Aberdeen Officials Working to Ease School Threat Worries,” KELO-TV, 2015.10.27].

No, Brandon, sometimes we do know. Rumors are by definition not true statements. They are idle talk, upon which we shouldn’t base blog posts or any other significant action. You’re more likely to bend your fender on Melgaard or get cancer from chicken nuggets than suffer whatever it is some rumor tells you might happen. Pack a turkey sandwich and get to class.

If this foolishness keeps up, we might as well go to Internet classes and homeschool for everyone: no more snow days, no more lockdown drills, and your homework is due tomorrow no matter what. And kids who scrawl mean messages about their little brothers on the bathroom mirror will have to deal with their parents, not a town-wide rumor-fest.

9 Comments

  1. Craig 2015-10-28 10:43

    Step A: Post threatening message surrounding some type of violence at school on a specific day.

    Step B: When message becomes public, tell your parents you are fearful of your safety and thus feel it would be best to stay home that day.

    Step C: Free skip day! Log onto Xbox and spend the day drinking Mountain Dew while playing against your buddies who also convinced their parents that safety was paramount and bathroom scribbles should be taken seriously.

    Step D: Call “Sara” and ask if she would like to get together Saturday night – because what was written on the other stall wall might also be true… you just never know.

  2. jerry 2015-10-28 10:59

    Exactly Craig, we probably became such a bunch of willy nilly scaredy cats when we unleashed the mass movement to arm ourselves to the teeth by electing a black president. Some dude in South Carolina got busted with about 10,000 stolen guns, amazing. We have so many guns that now we are about as paranoid as a North Korean dictator. Maybe hire a guidance counselor or two more that what the district has now, or how about mentors that could deal with the bully pressure that kids now face. How wrong of me, that would take money. We do not have money for our teachers at present so how could we find the money to hire more staff without political courage? Back to the willy nilly scaredy cats.

  3. troy 2015-10-28 11:23

    CH,

    1) Rumors are by definition “unsubstantiated.” After investigation, they maybe found true or false.

    2) While law enforcement may not consider the “threat” as an actual threat to others safety, law enforcement must take the “threat” serious with regard to making a threat is also serious (regardless if the person making the threat really intends or is capable of carrying out the threat).

    That said, I agree with your larger point.

    1) More children die from 8a.m.-3 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays or days in the summer than they do Monday-Friday in school.

    2) A child is more likely to die driving to Grandma’s House for Thanksgiving than they are in school.

    3) A child is more likely to die in their sleep from a house fire than they are in school.

  4. DR 2015-10-28 11:25

    http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/aberdeen-officials-take-school-threat-seriously/?id=4767

    This isn’t the first time that happened in Aberdeen. I was a senior at Central when this threat went down. This was a little more serious, b/c we all knew the kid. They had police set up all over around the school and we were searched going into school that day. It was going to be a “Halloween massacre” and Aberdeen was going to be “Columbine all over again”

    I didn’t stay home then, and I wouldn’t of this time.

  5. Donald Pay 2015-10-28 11:31

    I would say if someone wrote a threat, no matter how vague, and no matter what rumors have come out of a threatening incident, that needs to be taken seriously. It needs to be investigated. Whether a threat is credible or not usually requires investigating, so concluding that a threat is “not credible” presupposes a certain amount of investigation leading to that conclusion.

    “Rumors” may or may not be relevant or helpful in the investigation. Rumors may be true, partly true or false, and thus may contribute to the investigation. Running down where and how a rumor started often gets you back to a witness. Sometimes, of course, a guilty party will start a false rumor to throw off an investigation.

  6. Ben Cerwinske 2015-10-28 12:47

    Sounds like it was more than a “mean message”. Adults choose whether or not to go to school. Kids don’t have the same choice. The odds of being killed at school are extremely slim. But being dismissive of kids’ concerns or calling them “scaredy cats” is poor leadership. If you work at a school, like I do, show up, carry on business as usual, and students will likely follow suit.

  7. Ben Cerwinske 2015-10-28 13:58

    Sorry Jerry, having read your comment more closely, I see I took “scaredy cats” out of context. Although, when dealing with kids, they can take loose comments like that to heart regardless of your intention…

  8. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-10-29 08:46

    Now you’re thinking like a teenager, Craig. Kids are smart.

    Thank you, Troy, for underscoring the fact that school is the safest place for children.

    DR: searched on the way in to school? I wouldn’t have stood for that, as a student, parent, or teacher. I don’t even like the drug-dog lockdowns.

    Ben: I appreciate your efforts to maintain business as usual.

  9. Dana 2015-10-29 13:29

    “If this foolishness keeps up, we might as well go to Internet classes and homeschool for everyone: no more snow days, no more lockdown drills, and your homework is due tomorrow no matter what.”

    It will come to this, sooner than later.

Comments are closed.