Text Message 'Miscommunication' Puts Three New Jersey Schools On Lockdown
from the all-that's-missing-is-the-ONLY-detail-that-matters dept
Today's dose of paranoia and confusion comes to us courtesy of RyanNerd. We've seen schools react badly to perceived threats before, but the lack of a single crucial detail makes it impossible to determine whether this incident is one of those cases. What we do know is that three New Jersey schools were locked down and swarmed by police officers as the result of a single text from a student to a parent.
According to the New York Daily News, the culprit was autocorrect.
A panicked mom called local police and sparked a three-hour lock down of South Plainfield High School in New Jersey, officials told The Daily News.For three hours, students were kept in their classrooms while buildings, backpacks and lockers were searched by law enforcement. In at least one school, students were searched as well.
"It created a heck of a mess," Schools Superintedent Stephen Genco told The Daily News.
Genco did not disclose exactly what the text message said, but said it involved the kid's phone not working.
"Auto correct created a situation where it looked like it was something totally different," he said.
The district issued an all-clear at 1:30pm, three hours after the panic began. A statement was issued by the district, which failed to address the content of the text message, but gave a lot of credit to the district's lockdown drills.
As you know, today there was an incident that caused authorities to put the HS , Middle School and Grant into a lockdown situation. The police have concluded their investigation and have determined that there was no threat. Currently the police are concluding their procedures and have authorized the reopening of all three buildings. All procedures were followed and it was clear that the practice drills we hold in each of our schools assisted in readying the students and staff for this incident. Thank you for your patience and support.Even the Borough of South Plainfield felt moved to issue a statement via its Facebook page.
South Plainfield High School, Middle School and Grant School were all on lockdown earlier today. There was a miscommunication from a student to parent that caused a call into the Borough's 911 center. Police were required to investigate and initiate lockdown procedures. It was a miscommunication. The reports of arrests are totally false. everyone is safe.Throughout all this communication, everyone involved has taken great care to withhold the content of the text that kicked off the three-school lockdown.
Here's what can be ascertained from the smattering of facts dispersed across several articles.
1. A text was sent by a student to a parent.One report contains this speculative statement from district superintendent Stephen Genco.
2. This text was misinterpreted by the parent, either due to the student's own error or the unforced error of autocorrect.
3. The student's parent contacted the local police.
4. Police swarmed three schools, which were all placed on lockdown for three hours.
5. Nothing was discovered, no arrests were made and the all-clear was sounded.
Genco said there were “several rumors,” including that someone was bringing a gun to the high school’s pep rally Friday.So, why is this text being withheld? The school could make the argument that the involvement of a minor raises privacy issues and thus, the text's content must be withheld. But this conspicuous omission hardly seems to be policy-related. Superintendent Genco never broaches the subject of district policy which is normally the first card played during iffy situations like these. Someone's embarrassed about their reaction. Whether it's the parent, the local PD or the school district remains to be seen. Somehow a text about a malfunctioning phone resulted in a police sweep (with K9 units) and lockdown of three schools, but so far, none of the reassuring voices (school, PD, city officials) have come forward to show the public exactly what mistake was made and how it was interpreted as a potential threat. (Here's how it could have happened...) More questions than answers here, I'm afraid, and that makes it tough to gauge the appropriateness of this response.
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Filed Under: miscommunication, new jersey, schools, threats
Reader Comments
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Bin Laden was right: he didn't have to lift a finger, because your government and corporations do the job for him.
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Same thing happens when you're a child and someone plays "peek-a-boo" with you and it's so fun an exciting, but after a while, you get bored with it.
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lol wot national security ?
You're an average police officer in a town.
Get phone call and a credible threat reported.
Possible immediate threat to school pupils.
...
Now what are you going to do ?
1) Hurr durr, long-assed investigation
2) Immediately inform schools and lockdown, then investigate further.
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Re: lol wot national security ?
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anyone expect anything different? this was an ideal time to praise the steps that didn't need to be taken, that hopefully wont ever be taken. you cant beat a good excuse for praising the unnecessary!
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Its not hard to communicate.
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From which point the school administration can haul the student out of class to learn it's an auto correct error, and their teacher had made them turn their phone off for texting in class. Alternatively they themselves can call the cops if they deem it appropriate, and hopefully only the one school would be put on lockdown.
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Unfortunately, it seems like too many people are almost being trained to hit the panic button instead of calmly going through the correct channels. Why call the school and get an "everything's fine" message when the parent can call 911 and lock down three schools, presumably because little Johnny isn't answering his phone because his teacher told him to turn it off.
We also need people to get upset and protest reactions like this. Otherwise, like other posters are saying, people will get used to this kind of response. Little Suzy isn't answering Mom? Use this situation as a precedent and call 911 to lock down a school.
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When I saw this article...
Perhaps we can contact the NSA and have them tell us what the message said...
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A consequence of having retarded gun laws
Murrica... Guns everywhere... School shootings happening regularly
It is appropriate to check this type of shit out and "lockdown" three schools as a precaution if needed.
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Re: A consequence of having retarded gun laws
Also modify textbooks: You have a locker combination lock lined up in your target site. It is directly in front of you. You move 20 feet to your left, use a sextant to measure the angle to the locker combination lock and obtain 84.29 degrees. From your original position, now 20 feet to your right, what is the distance from your weapon to the locker combination lock?
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Re: A consequence of having retarded gun laws
without our guns our dictators would have no fear whatsoever.
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come back to planet earth
People with access to military contractors like blackwater, the military, the police including riot police, the nsa, airforce etc...
Implying they are afraid of a few people because they have guns... delusion-ally priceless.
Also... how is having all those guns working so far ?
They are soo scared they work for the people... lolwot?
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Re: come back to planet earth
If their revolutionary wet dreams are realized and it is the people engaged in an armed struggle with the government, then tactics of the people would have to be guerrilla warfare. Small arms would be useful, of course, but would also be available through the same methods that they're always available in those situations: theft, looting bodies, etc.
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A new technique for terrorists
Simply send a lot of threats everywhere, putting all schools, airports, state, federal and local government buildings and military installations on lockdown, and causing all traffic and commerce to screech to a halt.
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It doesn't stop the NSA from collecting this child's data
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Intended text: Saw a dirty comb in Billy's locker. Should I worry?
Maybe billy is suspected of head lice, or cooties, or whatever. Anyway kid types 'vomb' instead of 'comb' and now it's
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Duck You!
~The Students of Plainfield High School
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Autocorrected text: Billy brought some gun to school!
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"I didn't forget my gun today"
vs
"I didn't forget my gum today"
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AC says "Bomb there's a real threat for school launch today!"
mom reads "there's a real bomb threat launch at school today!"
Mom tells SWAT team "there's a bomb threat at school!"
SWAT team eagerly searches every student's property at school without a warrant.
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Da bomb
Kids still say things are "da bomb" nowadays, right? :/
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