DE PERE (NBC 26) — Schools in 2024 use precautions including on-site resource officers, monitoring software and silent alert software to tackle on online threats to campuses.
- As we've previously reported, four local high schools dealt with increased police presences Wednesday
- Another, Manitowoc Lincoln High, also had increased security due to "possible threats of school violence," according to an email to parents
- Waupun Junior and Senior High's lockdown was triggered by an accidental active threat alert, not an online threat, according to Waupun Police Chief Jeremy Rasch
- We visited a local school to learn how it works to prevents such threats from affecting students, faculty, staff and parents
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for web)
At least five different northeast Wisconsin had an increased police presences Wednesday because of some sort of threat. We're at De Pere Middle School with what happens when a threat is called, emailed, or even Snapchatted.
High schools in five of our neighborhoods saw enhanced police presences Wednesday. Normal operations continued at three after social media threats, Sheboygan North went into a soft lockdown for a social media threat, and Waupun went into a full lockdown after an active threat alarm was accidentally triggered.
No one was hurt in any of the instances.
When threats like this happen, having law enforcement officers like school resource officer Melissa Vande Wettering in schools allows for quick communication.
Vande Wettering says school districts decide whether to go into lockdown.
"The district will make the call, but they're definitely going to do it with our recommendation, with the information that we're learning," she said.
De Pere schools dealt with a phone call threat in May that caused a "soft lockdown" — also known as an "instructional hold." De Pere Middle School principal Adam Kraemer says the school has to balance validity of a threat with the interest of students and staff.
"We want to go on business as usual," he said. "So we have different protocols where we may hold students in the classroom and not allow them to leave if we feel like it's a little bit more of a significant threat."
Kraemer and Vande Wettering work together at De Pere school to prevent internet threats — which they say have become more and more common. Kraemer says the school can keep an eye on student Chromebooks, but not cell phones.
"We have monitoring software on all our student devices," he said, "so [if] students are at home and they're making a threat they're talking about harming themselves, we get emails, we get phone calls, we get texts to alert us."
If a threat does happen while school is in session, multiple layers of communication can go out: an intercom message, a silent alert to staff on a new software called "Raptor," and texts to parents — in addition to a physical lockdown.
"All our buildings, really, they have two systems — where you go into kind of an atrium area, which is one locked door and then there's another locked door you need to get in," Kraemer said. "So I think we're always looking for things like that."
Kraemer says De Pere Middle has not discussed having metal detectors in schools.
De Pere Police did not provide records Wednesday on whether the person responsible for the phone call in May was ever caught.
