Opinion: Information best way to stay safe in violent world

Some parents of Portales public school students are upset with school officials. They think someone should have told them about a threat of violence as soon as that threat was received — not after the threat was contained.

Those parents are not wrong.

Portales Schools Superintendent Johnnie Cain said he never felt the threat, received on Thursday evening, was credible and police agreed with him. That’s why he decided not to alarm parents.

But rumors of a supposedly planned shooting got around, as rumors always do in small towns. The woman Cain described as mentally ill continued making the threats against an unknown school and police arrested her on Friday.

Following the arrest, Cain issued the following statement to media and parents:

“Yesterday (Thursday) evening Portales Municipal Schools received word from the Portales Police Department that they had received information that a threat had been made to an unknown school in Portales. Upon investigation, the police determined that the threat was not credible.

“However, staff were notified this (Friday) morning to be more alert and police were closely monitoring each campus.

“This morning the person who made this claim was arrested by the Portales Police Department. The suspect was not armed and presented no threat to the schools.

“Teachers and staff will remain alert as always for the safety of our children.”

Cain said multiple parents pulled their students out of school as the rumors got around on Friday morning. Many parents who heard about the threats before Cain told them, as well as parents who found out when the statement was released, felt school officials should have been more transparent sooner.

Cain’s response to the incident — asking staff to be on the lookout but don’t start a panic by announcing a threat that’s not credible — is typical of area school officials.

They’re all wrong to handle it that way.

Cain is certainly correct in that many parents would have kept students home, even if they’d been told students would be safe, even if he were certain there was no real danger.

But while we demand officials do all they can to keep our children safe at school, it’s ultimately the parents’ job to make sure that happens. And parents need as much information as they can gather in order to make the best decisions about their children’s safety.

School shootings across the nation have left us all on high alert, well aware we are not immune to the violence we see on the news. And too many of us panic when there’s no need, choosing to stay home and hide under our proverbial beds at the suggestion of trouble.

What we need to do is keep things in perspective.

Airplane crashes are “news” because they are unusual. It’s ridiculous to stop flying because one of 150,000 jets that took off today had a mishap.

It’s the same with deadly school shootings — the overwhelming majority of schools have never had one and never will.

In the Portales case last week, we wish school officials had alerted all parents of the threat received Thursday on Thursday — at the same time letting them know police felt the threat was not credible and everyone was keeping a close eye on the situation.

Some parents would have panicked, stayed home and hidden under their beds. We suspect most would have sent the kids to school with a warning to be extra careful.

Information is our best weapon against violence. The more we have, the more likely we are to act appropriately.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Clovis Media Inc. editorial board, which includes Editor David Stevens and Publisher Rob Langrell.