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Dear Olmsted Parents,
The Details
At approximately 4:15 p.m. (after the end of the regular school day) a student reported finding a bomb threat written in a girl's bathroom at our Middle School. It was very small and barely legible. District officials contacted local safety forces who recommended an evacuation of those students and staff still remaining in the building. As a precautionary measure, all students and staff members left their belongings in the building and they were safely evacuated.
The Middle School building and grounds, as well as the adjoining Intermediate School building and grounds, were thoroughly searched by local law enforcement and responding bomb units. Nothing was found during the comprehensive search operation, and both buildings were given the all clear at approximately 8:00 p.m. this evening.
Both Olmsted Falls Middle School and Olmsted Falls Intermediate School will be in regular session tomorrow morning. For any Middle School student who left belongings in the building, belongings can be picked up any time after 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Are We Safe?
As your superintendent, I want you to know that I am also a father of three children that attend the Olmsted Schools. I have children who attend OFHS, OFMS and OFIS. They will attend those buildings tomorrow as will I (donuts for dads is in the morning at OFIS).
Communication to Parents/Guardians
The communication mechanisms that we have used to relay information to parents will be upgraded. At the Board of Education meeting last Thursday, the Board approved a more efficient system called Power Announcement that will relay information more quickly. It is connected to the PowerSchool program that we use for student information. When that system is put into place, we will be able to communicate with our parents and community rapidly. We will also explore Twitter and other forms of social media to be more responsive. While we will likely never be able to be as quick as a student's text to a parent, we recognize that reliable and valid information needs to be disseminated more quickly in emergency situations.
I want to personally commend the administrators, faculty, staff and students for their quick implementation of the Middle School's safety and security plan that we have put into play too often. Today's incident was another demonstration of unacceptable behavior. We will continue to work with the Olmsted Township Police to investigate this situation.
In closing, I wanted to let you know that no arrests have been made with the incident that occurred at OFHS on Wednesday. Despite what may be transpiring on social media, this matter is still under investigation.
Thank you for your patience and consideration.
Dr. Jim Lloyd, Superintendent
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