MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — The Manitowoc Public School District superintendent and his team spent parts of Monday meeting with school administrators and members of the district's safety team to debrief following Friday's incident.
Watch the full broadcast here:
Superintendent Lee Thennes said the district takes every threat seriously.
"A kid said that they had a gun, another kid said, they got a gun and it caused a stir .. but you have to take every threat very seriously in this day and age," Thennes said.
"This isn't the type of thing that we say .. what if, this is when. These are the things that happen and we always have to be prepared," Thennes said.
Communication with parents emerged as a key concern following the lockdown. Thennes said the timing of notifications to parents depended on guidance from law enforcement.
"When we get permission from who is running the show at that point which in this situation was our law enforcement partners," Thennes said.
Thennes acknowledged the district understands communication was a concern.
"I feel like, making sure our lines of communication are open are important, you kinda go back and go, God I wish I could've let parents know sooner, but we did it when we could and once when we could, we communicated updates regularly," Thennes said.
Kaitlynn Rowan, a parent of a student at Wilson, said she was alerted about the incident around 2 in the afternoon — about 2 hours after it happened.
"My phone blew up out of nowhere about 2 o'clock, I guess the incident started earlier than that .. everybody was kind of freaking out," Rowan said.
"I understand that they wanted to not have the chaos that happened with the parents but at the same time I do wish I was informed earlier," Rowan said.
Despite concerns about the timing of notifications, Rowan said she is confident in how staff and law enforcement responded.
"They did a great job responding I think, I feel a lot better knowing they are going to rush into the school and take care of it," Rowan said.
Rowan said she is using the incident as an opportunity to talk with her children about how to handle an emergency and the seriousness of the situation.
"This is America, this is where we live now, we gotta teach our kids," Rowan said.
Thennes said students and staff practice their safety protocols monthly, and the district and law enforcement will continue reviewing what happened.
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