LYNN — Parents and students were surprised to learn on Tuesday about a threat that a school shooting could take place at Lynn English High School on Friday. They were more surprised to learn that the threat was made three weeks ago.
“Three weeks ago, someone wrote on the bathroom wall a shooting would take place either May 25 or May 28,” said Lynn English Principal Thomas Strangie in a robocall to parents that went out on Tuesday. “We did a thorough investigation and found no credible evidence that such an event will take place, but as a security measure, a police presence will be on campus on both days.
“Just understand that your student’s safety is of utmost importance to us.”
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Schools are closed on May 28 for Memorial Day.
Lamar Craig Harris, a parent of a 16-year-old sophomore at Lynn English, posted a video on Facebook, detailing his surprise with being notified of the incident three weeks after the threat. In the video, he claims he is speaking with Strangie.
“There is a handful of parents that are already more pissed than I am because they didn’t know until I knew,” Harris said in the video. “As a parent, I would feel better if I got the phone call when it happened. Your job is to make sure these kids are safe. Take things a little bit more seriously.”
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Harris told The Item the threat is “ridiculously scary” and his son is not going to school on Thursday or Friday. He said he’s super upset — there are tons of parents who are upset and still not sending their kids to school even though officials found the threat wasn’t credible. He said parents are saying they need hardcore evidence that the shooting is not going to happen, that their kids are OK.
“At the end of the day, I no longer feel like my son is being protected fully,” Harris said. “I believe it was said best that children are our future so if we don’t protect them now, what do we have left?”
Mayor Thomas M. McGee, chairman of the School Committee, said police were not notified until Monday about the threat. He has spoken with Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham and the school safety officer, Oren Wright, about the incident.
“I have reinforced with all administrators and teachers that any evidence of reports or threats to teachers, students, administrators or school buildings need to be immediately reported to police,” McGee said. “That’s see something, say something.”
Jared Nicholson, a member of the School Committee, said he was surprised and concerned about the delay with police notification.
“I think we need to take all threats seriously and it sounds like we have a plan in place, but there was a breakdown in communication that shouldn’t have happened,” Nicholson said. “Any threat when it’s discovered should be immediately reported to law enforcement so they can get involved and we need to review that protocol to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Nicholson said these kinds of threats are unfortunate and scary and have the potential to become more common.
“It’s a sad predicament for people that are feeling scared because you see what’s going on around the country, but the threat has been investigated thoroughly and found to not be credible for that school and that’s where we are,” he said.
School Committee member John Ford said there will be a police presence at the school on Friday morning, but as of right now, officials aren’t calling school off.
“We were just told there was a message written in the building and they take it (seriously), but they’re in a position where they don’t think they can just close the school with every random threat they find in the school.”
Ford said the threat is obviously concerning and parents can determine whether they want to keep their kids home on Friday.
“You’ve got to take it seriously,” Ford said. “You’ve got to follow up on it, but I don’t think you can overreact either.”
He said there have been no other threats in Lynn Public Schools this year, but similar threats are starting to happen throughout the state.
“I just heard this afternoon that they knew of it three weeks ago,” Ford said. “If they used that additional time to investigate the credibility or the level of concern, I don’t think it would have done any good to notify the parents three weeks ago.”
McGee said school officials have numerous safety plans in place, and there are all kinds of actions that go on at all the schools that involve the police department.
“The school safety officer has met with me numerous times, (I) met privately with the School Committee, and work closely with the superintendent,” McGee said. “We are very engaged in safety for all 28 schools.
“I will not comment directly, but we have reiterated clearly through Officer Wright, the superintendent and chief of police that any and all incidents, no matter how small they may seem need to be immediately reported to the school safety officer.”
McGee said there is no suspect at this time.
Latham said Lynn English officials found a threat written on the bathroom wall — it wasn’t a worded threat, but was a picture.
“They (Lynn English officials) found a threat written on the wall of a boys’ bathroom and they investigated the threat at the time and they felt that the threat was not viable, but they’re still going to have a police presence in the school (Thursday), Friday and next Tuesday,” Latham said.
Lynn Police Lt. Dave Brown said there is nothing to indicate the threats are credible.
“Nonetheless, we are treating this matter very seriously, and we are working in conjunction with the school department and Lynn English High School staff,” Brown said. “There will be an increased police presence at or around the school over the next few days. At this time, the investigation remains ongoing.”
This story has been updated. Item reporter Thomas Grillo contributed to this report.
