NAHANT — A shelter-in-place procedure put into effect at Johnson Elementary School last Friday while staff attended to an incident with a student prompted confusion among parents.
The incident then led to a larger discussion over communication in the district during Tuesday’s School Committee meeting.
Johnson School Principal Kevin Andrews briefed the School Committee on what prompted the shelter in place to go into effect last Friday morning; he said it was an incident with a student, but could not disclose more details due to privacy restrictions.
“It was unfortunate, brief, but necessary,” said Andrews, explaining that the Nahant Police and Fire departments were called in to help resolve the situation.
The confusion started at around 11:30 a.m., when the Johnson school system sent out a shelter-in-place to staff and students. But in the alert, school administrators did not disclose exactly what happened or what prompted the order.
A shelter-in-place procedure, not to be confused with a lockdown, involves students and staff seeking safety in the building — such as within their respective classrooms — rather than being ordered to evacuate the building.
The lack of explanation raised concern from parents about how communication should be handled during a scenario like this.
“When administrators in schools use the term ‘shelter in place,’ parents usually think it’s because a student is in danger because there is something dangerous outside,” Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi explained to the School Committee.
Pierantozzi clarified that it may not necessarily mean there’s police activity outside the building. Friday was one of the rare occasions that the Nahant elementary school has had to shelter in place; he said such a protocol has been put into effect only a few times. The most recent case was not because there was any danger to students, but rather to shield them from seeing something upsetting.
“We do this because we don’t want our students, specifically our primary-school students, to get upset because they see something that’s a little bit disturbing and that is the case for Friday’s incident,” said Pierantozzi. “At no time was anyone in danger from anyone in the community or outside the community.”
School Committee member Lauren Sherlock said her concern centered around how the communication was handled for the shelter-in-place procedure. Parents reached out to her, she said, about the lack of communication with the community. She suggested looking into developing a better plan to fix the communication issue.
School Committee Chair Regina Laine suggested that there should be a confidential message sent out after future incidents, with the aim of helping parents to better understand the situation and reduce their anxiety around the safety of their children.
Board member Beth Anderson stressed the importance of normalizing this situation, noting how other districts have also implemented shelters in place this school year.
“It’s important to normalize and clarify,” said Anderson. “It would be good to get the language out that it is about staying put in classrooms and doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than that.”
Andrews said the incident has caused a shift in district priorities in terms of how communication to parents will be handled in the future.
“Our priorities for communication (were) to communicate with fire, police, main office, and students within the vicinity, and to assist the student who needed assistance as quickly as possible,” said Andrews.
Hannah Chadwick can be reached at [email protected].
