Bend Police investigators determine reported social media threat to Sky View Middle School was not credible

(Update: Police sergeant comments on sequence of events)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Parents' report of a social media post with threatening language apparently directed at Sky View Middle School in northeast Bend prompted a police investigation that determined it was not a credible threat. But a heightened police presence at the northeast Bend school Wednesday morning prompted concern among some parents.

In a note to families Wednesday morning, Principal Julie Stroinski said officers were alerted to the alleged threat late Tuesday night and immediately began an investigation.

But Stroinski assured, “Students and staff are safe and school is operating as usual today.”

Here's the full text of her note:

"Dear Sky View families,

"This morning we had a larger police presence at our school than usual, and I want to share with you the reason. We are working with Bend Police and our Student Threat Assessment Team to investigate a report of a social media post with threatening language directed at Sky View.

"Bend Police was alerted to the alleged threat late last night and began an investigation immediately. Upon notification to our school team this morning, we began our safety processes, which included an increased presence of school resource and patrol officers today. This is both  in support of student safety and the ongoing investigation. Students and staff are safe and school is operating as usual today.

"We rely on our threat assessment process when a student has potentially made a threat and/or acted in a way that raises concern about the student, another student or the school community. Every threat is investigated by our school’s threat assessment team, which provides safety recommendations and resources for those involved and for the entire school community. We also follow our Student Code of Conduct, which provides for disciplinary consequences, up to suspension or expulsion, for those responsible for making threats.

"We take the safety of our students, staff, and families seriously, every day. Anytime we learn about a potential threat at school, we follow the policy and procedures we have been trained to investigate and respond. We partner with law enforcement to evaluate and determine the credibility of any threat, and how best to respond.

Julie Stroinski, Principal"

While there have been numerous serious school-threat incidents around the country in recent weeks and months, Bend-La Pine Schools Director of Communications Scott Maben said Wednesday the district is "not seeing an increase in issues with threats."

"We always have a few through the year," Maben said, "and they range from young elementary students making inappropriate comments in the middle of a playground dispute, to things like this (social media posts)."

A parent who informed NewsChannel 21 of the principal's message said it arrived after classes began.

Facebook commenter about the incident claimed the timeline “was handled very poorly,” as parents arrived at the school to see several police cars out front and had not yet received word about why.

“Parents and students were not warned before, and many decided to take their kids home,” she wrote.

Other parents voiced similar concerns about not being notified earlier in the morning.

Maben said five officers were at the school Tuesday morning, including the school resource officer.

"School administrators were informed this morning at 7:15, and we began working on the message to families shortly after that," he said. "The message went out as soon as possible."

Maben added, "It’s important to point out that if we have any reason to believe it’s unsafe for staff and students to be in school, we would take the appropriate action (Secure, Lockdown, Closure). None of those actions were warranted for Sky View today."

Bend Police Sgt. Joe Pacheco, who oversees the other five school resource officers, said patrol officers were made aware by concerned parents late Tuesday night of a school threat and investigated whether it was legitimate, speaking with the student and parents.

Some of the concerned parents who contacted police asked for a police presence at the school in the morning.

Pacheco said the “baseline safety precaution” is that the student involved won’t go to school the next day, while the apparent threat is investigated, to give the school time to complete the standard threat assessment and re-entry plan.

By about 10 or 11 p.m., he said, they “were able to come to the conclusion that it was not legitimate. I didn’t see the report until this morning,” and then informed the school district safety team of the threat, and also that it had been deemed non-credible.

If parents were upset by police presence without an earlier notification, Pacheco said, “That’s on me. I’ve got to make the call at night, whether to hit the big red button” for a stepped-up response to a deemed credible threat.

“Normally the way it works is, if anyone thinks it’s legitimate, I’m waking everybody up,” Pacheco said, adding, “We get non-legitimate school threats every week.”

“Our default is leaning toward the side of safety,” the sergeant said. “I’m not taking any chances.”