Threat reported at Westwood High School

The Independent Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County newspaper reports today that there was a threat at Westwood High School in the Richland 2 School District.

Read the article here: 
https://www.blythewoodonline.com/2019/09/r2-acknowledges-whs-threat/?fbclid=IwAR0rQGVZHwUP9DxArXZi-DtS_Ff1fsnnFe_Em6L7eZAOgcgEUlfTtl6noTo

The article and the letter from Richland 2's Libby Roof do not name the student.

An undated letter from Westwood's Principal indicates only "yesterday", so who knows when the threat was. WIS-TV reports that a 15-year-old student was charged today (Sept. 10). An article on www.wistv.com indicates the Principal's letter was sent today, so maybe "yesterday" means the incident happened on September 9.

The kid allegedly had two knives in his possession (length not mentioned) and reportedly had threatened to shoot up the school. Maybe his defense of a "joke" will work.

Some of us remember the good, ol' days when we carried pocket knives to school. Country kids even kept rifles in their trucks for hunting at noon and after school. My, how times have changed.

Released today - Why Meadow Died

I started reading Why Meadow Died at 5:00AM, after Amazon delivered it to my Kindle earlier today. Meadow Pollack was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She died on February 14, 2018.

So far, I've just about finished the Preface, written by Meadow's father, Andrew Pollack, and co-author Max Eden, who is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Everyone should read this book. Every parent should read it. Every member of the Richland School District Two community should read it - the School Board, the Superintendent, the staff, the teachers, the employees, the parents and, yes, the students.

Hardcover or e-book from Amazon

Buy your copy and start reading it. Contact your favorite bookseller or Amazon. Don't "skim" it. Read it. Read every word on every page.

As I read the Preface, I felt it had Richland 2 written all over it. Parents have delegated (abdicated?) responsibility for their children to the District. Well, Parents, you are responsible for your children, not the school district.

I attended the first school board meeting after the Parkland shooting.

You can view my remarks to the school board by going to YouTube.com, then to Richland 2, then to the Feb. 27, 2018, meeting, and then scroll forward to 30:05 on the timer. Note that then-Board Chair Craig Plank indicates that the board will not responding directly to me (the speaker), "but someone from the District office will be reaching out to you at the conclusion of your remarks or at a later date."

In my remarks I requested the District to survey teachers, staff and parents on the topic of arming teachers. I also asked Richland 2 to establish a committee of parents and community members on school safety.

What happened? Was I contacted?

I had to follow up with the Board Chair, and then the response - finally - from the superintendent was that there would not be a survey. And I never heard a word about my suggestion for a parents and community member committee on school safety.

Read this book. Then talk about it.