Shooting scare response should provide comfort

April 22, 2005

Frontiersman editorial board

The call went in to the Palmer Police Department late Monday night. A student at the high school was said to be planning a Columbine-style massacre on Wednesday, the sixth anniversary of the Colorado tragedy that stands as the worst school shooting the country has witnessed.

For those who thought a similar scenario could never play out in the relative pastoral safety of Palmer, Alaska, the call put a real-life frame around what previously had been just a nightmarish imagining. Predictably, the call also shifted the rumor mill into overdrive, and as late as Thursday afternoon, police were still trying to separate fact from fiction.

But several big-picture things are clear. And for these, we can all be thankful.

One of the host of safeguards implemented following the Columbine tragedy was the nationwide Safe School Helpline. The message Monday night from an anonymous caller to the program's 800 number about the allegedly impending Palmer incident was immediately forwarded to Palmer police. Palmer High Principal Wolfgang Winter was then alerted, and a plan was put in place to monitor the student in question during school Tuesday.

Over the course of the school day, the student is alleged to have made threatening comments to other students. School officials placed him on emergency suspension and removed him from the school, while law enforcement personnel continued to investigate.

Later that night, after interviewing both the student and his father, police arrested the 17-year-old and forwarded charges of felony assault and making terroristic threats to the Juvenile Justice office. Juvenile authorities subsequently decided to charge the boy with a less serious offense that is not disclosable under state confidentiality laws. The boy is being held at Mat-Su Youth Facility.

Subsequent investigation turned up no credible evidence of any intent or capability to actually execute the grisly plan. So school district officials and local police and state troopers determined it was safe to keep school open Wednesday - with a heavy police presence. In addition to deciding against closing the school, officials also decided not to call all parents of Palmer High students.

These are not decisions we would wish on anyone. But in the final analysis, they were the best decisions. Not only would closing the school have increased the profile of what appears to have been a dangerous prank, it may also have encouraged other misguided youths to engage in similar pranksterism. It also would likely have touched off unnecessary panic and wild rumors around town.

It took great courage for school officials to take responsibility for those decisions. Likewise for them to be accessible to local media outlets instead of trying to cover up or sugar-coat the situation.

The incident leaves many questions unanswered, most notably the one about what might drive a student to such lengths. But it also provides many lessons. And the most comforting one is that the system in place, implemented by some obviously skilled and caring local people, is one that works.