When Jane Kelly came to Hubert Street on Monday morning, Jan. 24, she hadn’t heard the news about an e-mail threat made to a student in the school. She just saw the police officers on school grounds and knew something was wrong. As she came inside the school, she heard students talking about the threat, although at the time, no official word had been sent to parents or students to tell them that the threat was just a joke between two very close friends. “Kids came talking about the threat and how they were not allowed to use the main door,” she said. “Even kids who didn’t own a computer knew about the threat.” A seventh-grade boy from Secaucus Middle School apparently had sent threatening electronic mail to a sixth grader at Huber Street School on Sunday, Jan. 23. Although supposedly a joke, the Huber Street student told his sister about the message and their parents called the police. Kelly and other parents confronted members of the Board of Education at the Jan. 26 Board of Education meeting, saying the schools needed to communicate with the parents better when it comes to situations of this kind. “I don’t believe school officials handled this situation properly,” said John Scheiner, the parent of a child in Huber Street. “As a parent we have a right to know what’s going on.” Kelly and Scheiner said many of the students knew about the message and were upset, while parents were left in the dark. While the parents agreed that the superintendent of schools and other officials handled the threat well, they said parents should have been informed about the threat and what was being done. “We shouldn’t have to read about it in the newspapers,” said Scheiner. Board members said the school had sought to avoid a panic by handling the matter quietly. “The superintendent was on top of this from the get-go,” said Board President Michael Pesci, noting that the threat was investigated on Sunday by police and school officials. “It was determined that there was no problem.” Scheiner said parents should have been informed as soon as possible so they could decide whether to send their kids to school. School officials claim that this was not possible because the event occurred on Sunday night. But some parents said they were left in the dark even as late as Monday night, when a message could have been sent home with the kids from school. Board member Edward Rittberg said school officials told everyone who was concerned about the situation and that only one person had actually contacted the Huber Street school principal to find out information. A parent in a later interview said most parents didn’t know there was a problem unless they saw the police at school. “Maybe the police show up at school at times, but this time one was out in the parking lot and one was walking through the school,” said Bob Jamison, another parent. “When a problem happens like this, it should be the parent who decides whether or not our kids should go to school, not the board.” School officials said informing parents of various situations could go too far. “Where do we draw the line when it comes to informing parents?” Rittberg said. “If we have a bomb threat and have to evacuate the students, do we have to inform the parents? We can’t push the panic button every time something happens. If this had been a real threat we would have shut the schools down.” Doug MacCormack, another board member, said students threaten each other routinely, but because the threat was made over the e-mail, a somewhat anonymous means, it became an emotional issue. “These kinds of threats have happened before and will happen again,” he said. “What we have to do is communicate better. It’s just that someone used the Internet to make it this time.” MacCormack said the schools superintendent and the police did all the right things necessary to ensure the safety of the students. Board member Anthony Rinaldi said the district has 1,700 students and the schools can’t reach every parent on such short notice. Use the whistle Parents, however, said the school has access to numerous communication systems, from its newly-emerging web page to the more traditional cable access television. The schools often blow a whistle in the morning during snow emergencies in order to tell parents to call the school for further details. Even this method could be used in the event of an emergency. While school officials and police would not disclose the schools to which the two students belonged or the content of the message, Superintendent Gus Scerbo said the student who sent the message had been removed from attending regular classes. The e-mail threat comes at a time of heightened sensitivity. As the news broke about the Secaucus incident, the FBI disclosed an e-mail threat made against Seton Hall University, where three students recently died in a fire. Several parents of Secaucus students claimed last year’s shooting at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School had made them fearful of violence in local schools. In November, the same month as Secaucus high school unveiled its new security system, a mob of about 10 students allegedly ambushed two students in the streets, beating one badly enough to send him to the hospital. “We are afraid for our children,” Kelly said.
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