‘We deal with school threats seriously’

Interim Education commissioner Donna M. Flores warned individuals causing terroristic threats and or any kind of threats, violence against students and personnel, and or causing disruption of school operations, emphasizing that perpetrators will be dealt with accordingly.

“Making terroristic threats or threats to life, property, and any form of threat and violence will no longer be tolerated. Anyone who is found responsible for doing this will have a heavy weight to bear, so now, I say one more time: whoever is making these threats please stop,” she said following last week’s shooting threats at Francisco M. Sablan Middle School and Cha Cha Oceanview Middle School.

Flores met with the Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies over the weekend to discuss the growing threats against schools using various social media platforms. Both agencies have agreed there are laws, both local and federal, that provide for harsh penalties and consequences.

The Public School System and DPS are now working with cyber security experts to locate the origin of threats which were made through social media against students/public schools last week, the media release said.

“We have to deal with this accordingly because of the cost and impact of these threats to our schools and government resources, notwithstanding the impact of every threat on the emotional, mental and wellbeing, and academic lives of our students,” said Flores.

She added, “because we take every threat seriously, addressing them takes more resources away from what we and our law enforcement partners do every single day.”

PSS said threats to students, schools and school property by a student is considered a “Category 1” offense which will be dealt with suspension and may result in expulsion and referral to law enforcement.

The 2022 PSS Student Discipline Policy identifies these offenses (Section 3) Chronic disruption of the school program and/or activities, (7) Disruptive behavior which results in the interference with the normal school program, (10) Failure to assume responsibility for, or to control his/her behavior, (15) Participating in, or inciting a school disruption, and (32) bomb threat.

The Board of Education-PSS Rules and Regulations as codified by the 2019 CNMI Law Revision Commission strengthens this under “Category III—Offenses which shall result in expulsion and referral to law enforcement: (2) Acts of terrorism (such as bomb threats).”

The NMI government has also enacted a law that imposes tough penalties on threats and perpetrators of threats.

Public Law 12-83 penalized the “crime of terroristic threatening in the Commonwealth”.

Enacted in January 2002, the law found “the frequency and severity of these threats has risen to the level where the conduct needs to be criminalized, in order to stop these disruptions to public welfare.”

P.L. 12-83 defines terroristic threatening as “a person commits the crime of terroristic threatening if the person knowingly makes a false report that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist”.

It also includes “places a person in fear of physical injury to any person, causes evacuation of a building, (and) or causes serious public inconvenience.

A person convicted under this section may be punished by imprisonment for a term not to exceed 10 years, or a fine not to exceed 10 years or both.”

Appeal to parents: Use social media responsibly

At the same time, Flores appealed to parents and guardians of PSS students, and the community, as a whole, to continue educating their children on the importance of using social media responsibly.

“Our community plays a very critical role when it comes to school safety. One of the biggest resources we have is our public—I, along with all of our stakeholders, appeal to the public that we need our parents and everyone out there to be educated about the dangers of social media when they are used unregulated or unguided,” she said.

PSS is now looking at imposing restrictions on social media while on campus. Parents, for their part, can do the same by imposing strictly regulated use of social media using various electronic gadgets, PSS said.

The education acting chief is reminding parents and guardians of public school students that they have signed an agreement with the school district on the use of PSS-issued laptops and iPads that parents should adhere to strict use of these learning tools and technologies.

The PSS media release at the same time is reminding the CNMI community that if they ever believe there is an immediate threat to a school, it is always best to call 911.

‘Listen to your child’

Flores said in home situations, parents can detect—and prevent potential—situations regarding their child’s behavior.

“Home intervention could provide a very critical aspect that could change or prevent their child’s actions. Your child could be facing difficulties and challenges and maybe having a hard time expressing them—talk to them, hug them…” she said.

“We parents have intervention roles that can prevent potential problems and challenges in our child. We can still prevent it if we listen to them, if we are there to check on them regularly on their needs, on their challenges and difficulties,” Flores added.

PSS has a team of mental health professionals, and has reiterated that it is assisting schools with various intervention programs as they work with parents on the mental health and well-being of every child/student, through their counselors.

“This is an all-hands approach for us at PSS and the school. We have programs that could assist our parents in providing them with an intervention approach that would ensure that their child will need support as they come to school and learn every day,” said Flores. (PR)