Dear Iberia R-V Families & Community Members,
You may have heard of an increase in social media threats against schools across the state and the nation the past few weeks. Hundreds of districts have been the victims of these threats. Our district was mentioned in a threatening social media post today. We were included in a vague threat along with three other Missouri districts, none close to us. In fact, the only connection between the four districts is that they are listed alphabetically in a full list of Missouri school districts. Although this clearly appeared to be a false threat, we immediately implemented our safety procedures for such an event and contacted law enforcement for further assistance. While we do not believe these threats to be credible, we will continue to work with local law enforcement to investigate and bolster security.
These incidents cause stress on our students, families and staff. They also disrupt the learning environment. We appreciate our administrators and local law enforcement partners who work quickly and thoroughly to investigate these threats. However, if it’s age-appropriate, we ask that you talk to your student about the seriousness of making a threat. Please help us emphasize to all students that making a threat against a public school, whether it occurs on social media, in conversation, or in any other format, has quite severe legal and disciplinary consequences.
As a district, we will process all incidents in fulfillment of our district’s policies with support from our law enforcement partners. Please also talk to your student about reporting any threatening post or communication to our school staff and police. We will continue to encourage an environment where students, staff, and families feel empowered to report anything that might be suspicious or out of the ordinary. Prompt reporting is important in helping us to be proactive in maintaining a safe school environment.
If you see a social media threat, please don’t forward or repost it. Instead, take a screenshot and share it with our school administrators and police. Sharing the post makes it harder to find out who started it and slows down the investigation. Further, do not seek answers on social media. Information there is often inaccurate and just spreads misinformation. If you have a question, please contact us directly. Help us stop the spread of rumors. Our commitment to you is to do all we can to keep our students and staff safe.
Sincerely,
Lyndel R. Whittle
Iberia R-V Superintendent