School Board Hears Safety Presentation Following Knife Incident

The Wauwatosa School Board heard a school safety presentation soon after a second-grade student brought a knife to school, reported Wauwatosa Now.

The pupil brought a knife to Washington Elementary School on at least two days before it was taken from him.

The knife was taken from the student Thursday, Jan. 24. Principal Anthony Bonds sent an email Friday, Jan. 25  to parents notifying them of the situation. 

But a number of parents were upset by the way the situation was handled, in particularly with the timing of the notification. By the time Bonds sent out the email some parents had already heard about the situation from their children. Some of the children told parents they were threaten.

Wauwatosa Now reported that Trish Lipscomb said her 8-year-old son told her the boy with the knife had said, "I'm going to kill you," to another student. 

A presentation was made on Monday to the board by Jim Larson, a psychologist and professor emeritus from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

In the presentation Larson told the board they need to address threat assessment, mental health support and crisis management, reported Wauwatosa Now.

He also told the board that a "decision tree" and "consistency of process" needs to be created, reported Wauwatosa Now. For example, emails would only be sent out under certain circumstances.

Larson told the board there should not be any places that aren't monitored or are difficult to monitor. 

He advised the board against too many suspensions because it allows students to go unsupervised.

Additionally, he suggested the board create a process in which students are able to report a situation with complete confidentially.

Wauwatosa School District has trained for the day, with police and fire departments, when it might have to deal with crisis.

"We have a crisis response plan in place," said Dan Chanen, human resources and communications director for the district, in a December in response to the Sandy Hook shootings. "We all have different response roles should anything like this happen."