Around the United States  there has been 17 school shootings since the the start of this year as reported by CNN,  and a rumored “threat” that brought chaos to Triton High School on March 1st.

      A screenshot of a post on social media, which  warned students of the consequences of coming to school, spread around the students like wildfire. The entire school was discombobulated and unsure what would happen next.

    Principal Timothy  Ruggere reported a total of, “30 parents in the office, 95 kids dismissed, and 120 phone calls in a 45 minute period,” when rumor hit social media.

       Students were scared and unsure of how to react.

            “When I first heard about the threat I was extremely frightened. It was like a chill went over my entire English class. I could tell that we were all thinking about the events that transpired in Parkland the week before. It was terrifying to think that we were all in danger,” said junior Lily Fullford.

                 Students like Fullford were terrified, and unfortunately the administration had to try to handle this nightmare.

                    “Anytime you get a call like that you wonder to yourself, is this real? And your first gut instinct, is everyone safe? ” said superintendent Mr. Brian Forget.

            It all started on wednesday night on February 28th.

          “From what I can legally share is that we got a couple phone calls from middle school parents around 4 o’clock Wednesday night saying that their kids heard such and such. And less than 10 minutes after, our school resource officer was on the phone with those parents trying to assess the situation,” said Forget.

     Forget explained that they were hesitant about informing people the night before because they did not yet have all the facts or information they could put out to the community. So by doing so it would only cause more harm than good.  

     On the phone calls from middle school parents/students  Forget reported that students said, “It wasn’t an actual threat but I heard of a possible school shooting”, and “so I could have said wednesday night, “hey a couple of kids said that someday there was a potential school shooting at Triton”, but I am sure a lot of students at Triton are fearful of shootings and its safe to say unfortunately we’re all talking about it now” said Forget.

        Many students and staff were angry and confused about the way situation was handled and felt that people should have been warned beforehand.

        “I don’t believe that Triton handled the situation well, but I do respect the fact that these situations are hard to handle. I understand the school’s reasoning behind not informing the parents of the threat, but I believe that the staff should have been made aware immediately after the threat was established,” said Fullford.

   Although some students like Fullford sympathize with the difficulty administrators face when making a big decision like this, Forget explains his reasoning behind it.

        “The goal is usually to get out in front of it, but unfortunately in this instance we could not. The hardest part is we want to send out information as quickly as possible, but we also have to make sure that information is accurate,” said Forget.  

        Backing up Forget, Ruggere explained that the hardest part of this situation was the social media component.

       “The power of social media was definitely my biggest takeaway from this entire experience. For someone like myself who doesn’t understand how social media works and then to see how hard it can make what us as administrators and educators do, and really see the difficulty of the situation from it ,” said Ruggere.

       After receiving the phone calls that evening from several middle school parents, a post on social media emerged warning students about a potential shooting.

      In the meantime while administrators were trying to sort through this mess, the post began spreading from student to student, and by the time the administration was able to conclude the rumored “threat” wasn’t an actual threat, it was too late. The post spread so fast student chaos roamed through the halls at Triton.

     “Seeing everyone so anxious and frantic that day, I was anxious myself,” replied Mr.Ruggere.

   The power of social media created a blockade of truth that day. With 120 phone calls in a 45 minute period from parents coming in on the one phone that could also produce announcements over the loudspeaker, administrators had a difficult time sending out the announcement that everyone was safe because every time they tried, another worried parent rang in.

    “There was never any fear that something was going to happen. It was just a matter of addressing it,” said Forget.

           By the time the announcement did go over the loudspeaker, a majority of students were already gone. Once the 2:13 bell sounded, and everyone was finally gone after a long day of chaos, principal Ruggere and several other administrators including Mr.Forget, sat in Mr. Forget’s office at around 5:00 pm trying to figure out the next step.

             Later the school sent out an email to parents, that explained the situation, “STARZ Police”, who were trained in handling school shootings and threats, were also contacted that night.

            After school was cancelled friday due to the storm, tension eased over the weekend and STARZ Police showed up Monday morning to give students and parents some extra peace of mind.

     As the situation slowly died down throughout the past few weeks, administrators used this lesson, to help prepare for the future.

         Security cameras at all schools in the Triton School District will be added next year, student and staff safety training will also take place, as well as a new phone with a seperate line that does announcements and a separate line that does calls will also be added.

      An experience that was scary at the time opened up a lot of people’s eyes.

        Ruggere explained that since the event that took place at our school, others have continued to happen at other schools, such as Plymouth, Andover and even his son’s school where a post on social media about a rumored school shooting exploded with chaos.

       “Since then, that’s my big thing. How do we combat social media?”, said Ruggere.

     In addition to Ruggere, Forget expressed his thoughts about the aftermath.

   With “little tweaks we make and prioritizing communication now, there wasn’t really anything we could’ve done differently that day,” said Forget.  

       Moving forward students around the world like Fullford, have become passionate about expressing their views on guns and emphasizing the importance of keeping them away from schools.

    “Myself and fellow students should not have to be afraid to come to school, in fear that we would not make it home. It is far too easy for Americans to gain access to guns. In my personal opinion, the gun law should be raised to 21. If the government cannot trust people under 21 with alcohol why can they trust people with guns?,” said Fullford.