Technical Mishap Puts Scare Into Whitehills Elementary Staff, Prompts Fixes to ELPS Emergency Preparedness
An announcement of an intruder that mistakenly went over the PA system at Whitehills Elementary School put a scare into school staff members, but there was never actually a threat to employees.
On Friday, Feb. 14, ELPS was holding a professional development day, meaning staff members were working but students were home for the day. After an all-staff meeting at the high school in the morning, Whitehills staff returned to the elementary school, ELPS Superintendent Dori Leyko explained in an email to ELi.
Shortly after staff returned to the building, a male voice unexpectedly came over the Whitehills PA system announcing that there was an intruder near the cafeteria. The building went into a lockdown and police were called.
After the four male staff members at Whitehills said they did not make the announcement, Principal Molly Williams met with ELPD officers who arrived at the scene. The officers did a sweep of the building before releasing staff from the lockdown, Leyko said.
Eventually, the district’s tech staff and ELPD traced the announcement back to the high school, Leyko explained.
At the time, the high school was holding a scheduled emergency preparedness drill. When a staff member “saw the intruder” for the drill, they went to the nearest phone–located in the central office–and made the announcement.
The employee who typically uses the phone had worked at Whitehills the second half of last year, Leyko said. When they made the move to the high school, the PA setting in the phone was not changed. The issue was discovered to be more widespread when the same problem presented itself during a test at Marble Elementary School that day.
“We figured that out when a Marble staff member made a ‘test announcement’ prior to Marble’s drill and did so from our school psychologist’s phone at Marble – and our school psych also works out of the high school,” Leyko wrote in her email to ELi. “Her announcement was just a ‘teacher name – Rm. 124’ or something close as Principal Robertson had each staff member use the PA system as practice before the actual drill. Our high school principal heard the announcement, called our Deputy Superintendent to inquire about the unexpected announcement, and they worked with our Director of Technology and his team to identify this technical issue.”
Some staff members were shaken up after the incident, but were not offered the opportunity to go home for the remainder of the day. Leyko said it was a mistake to not allow employees to go home.
The district has since offered mental health support to staff members and held three days of listening/feedback sessions with Whitehills staff, Leyko said.
The incident exposed a hole in the district’s emergency preparedness plan, which administrators have since taken steps to address.
An email cosigned by Leyko and three other administrators was sent to Board of Education members and Whitehills staff on Monday, Feb. 24. The email outlined six steps the district has taken in reaction to the incident. Leyko shared the email with ELi. The six steps, as described in the email, are:
“1. An audit of all district phones was completed to ensure that the PA/Intercom button goes to the building in which the phone is located. While this audit was occurring, all lockdown drills that were scheduled for last week were postponed. An audit will also be completed each fall prior to the start of school as staff members sometimes change buildings.
2. On Friday, [Director of Health and Safety] Matt Morales traveled to half of our buildings with an ELPD officer to test their key cards to make sure they get into each building. The rest of the buildings will be completed this week. Our tech dept has confirmed that the patrol car key cards have 24/7 access to our buildings and that Meridian Township PD also has 24/7 access to Donley.
3. Yesterday, Matt Morales, [Director of Facilities and Operations] Billy Hastings and Molly [Williams] tested the lockdown button at Whitehills and made sure the media center door securely closes and locks upon the lockdown button being hit.
4. [Tech Director] Christian Palasty is working with Molly to ensure her RAVE [Alert] Staff Assist platform is active and working. He will be at tomorrow’s staff meeting to provide some RAVE technical guidance and learn more about the RAVE issues that were experienced last week so that we can troubleshoot those issues.
5. If any staff members would like continued support from one of our mental health providers, we can ask Finn to come back onsite. We hope that you found Finn and/or [School Social Worker] Kristin Sesti helpful to have available last week.
6. Our protocol for all drills and critical response scenario training will include notification to all building principals that these drills/practices are taking place.”
In response to questions from ELi, both Leyko and East Lansing Interim Police Chief Jen Brown confirmed ELPD has access to ELPS buildings at all times.
Leyko said she and Deputy Superintendent Glenn Mitcham were at Whitehills today, Friday, Feb. 28, to continue to gather feedback. She said there are more steps the district is taking in response to the incident, and those steps will be communicated with Whitehills staff next week.
Correction 3/3: An initial version of this story said employees were offered the opportunity to home on Feb. 14. This was incorrect and the story has been updated.