WHITEHALL, Ohio — Whitehall City Schools held two town halls on Friday to speak with parents and students about Thursday’s swatting incident.
Superintendent Sharee Wells said she wanted to host the town halls so that parents and students could ask questions and the district could provide more clarity about what happened. Wells said they learned a lot from the incident.
Thursday afternoon at Whitehall Yearling High School was a scary day for some young students.
“We hear the level three lockdown and they tell us to get in the front of the room. Five minutes later they said barricade the door, so me and my friends barricaded the door,” said Rose Pletcher-Shump, a student at the high school.
“My teacher told us to help barricade the door. We used every desk and chair,” said student Cheyanna Moore.
A prank phone call turned into a lockdown situation. Some students ran, while others barricaded. Whitehall police said they got to work right away.
“We are prepared for the event of an active shooter. The school is prepared for an active shooter event,” said Whitehall Police Lt. Tanner Williams.
A 16-year-old girl was arrested after she confessed to calling in the threat, police say.
Friday’s town hall was all about going forward. Parents told 10TV they want better communication from the district when it comes to these types of incidents. They said the trauma their kids endured won't go away easily.
“The school never called [right away]. I’m on every communication call, text, email, so is my husband. They didn’t call for over an hour,” said parent Sarah Shump.
“It traumatized her enough, so she's still processing and dealing with it. She stayed home today from school,” said Cheyanna's mother, Tisha Moore.
Wells said they learned a lot after Thursday’s incident and changes will come immediately, especially in relation to the communication of the incident.
“Instead of just saying level three and everybody panicking, we will say level three, we are investigating, here is what the threat is. So that there is clear communication,” said Wells. “We want to make sure we get as much information out as possible, as quickly as possible to our families,” she added.
Wells said she wants families to know that student and staff safety is their number one priority.