SULLIVAN, Maine — Students at Mountain View School on Route 200 were kept in classrooms for 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon while school officials conducted a search of the building, according to officials.
Suzanne Lukas, superintendent of Regional School Unit 24, said Wednesday that school staff received information that resulted in a search of the building from about 1 to 2:30 p.m. Lukas declined to identify what the information was or what school officials were looking for but said nothing of concern was found during the search.
There are 240 children enrolled at Mountain View School, which serves pupils from kindergarten through eighth grade from Franklin, Sorrento and Sullivan, according to Lukas.
The superintendent said she was not sure when school officials learned of the information that led to the search, though she said it likely was not long before the search got under way. There was no incident that precipitated the search, she said.
Pupils were allowed to go home at the usual dismissal time of 2:45 p.m. and after-school programs went ahead as scheduled, the superintendent added.
“We had some information that caused us to follow our safety procedures,” Lukas said. “At no time were children at risk.”
Maine State Police Trooper Chris Smith said Wednesday that police assisted in the school search but took no subsequent action as a result of the search or because of the information that led to the search. He said officials were looking for a type of item prohibited at the school but declined to say what it was.
Without elaborating with details, Lukas said school officials are obligated to follow safety protocols when certain situations arise, often before they know whether there is real threat or reason for concern.
“It is the kind of thing we deal with in schools today, unfortunately,” Lukas said.
The rumor was that some kid had a half dozen donuts stashed in his backpack.
That got the lunch ladies all upset, and the cops volunteered to do the search. (finders keepers)
Whut?
Hey, they wuz Honey Glaze!
“Without elaborating with details, Lukas said school officials are obligated to follow safety protocols when certain situations arise, often before they know whether there is real threat or reason for concern”… how can it be a situation to cause saftey procedures, yet everyone was safe at all times?? and whycan’t they tell us what the situation is? if i was a parent in this school district i would DEMAND to know why the state police and school officials deemed it critical to search a K-8 MIDDLE SCHOOL
You can demand all you want as a parent, that doesn’t mean you get an answer. I suspect that IF something (whatever it was they were looking for), that would have made the news. You realize school personnel could search every locker in every school every day of the week if they wished. It sounds like RSU 24 followed their protocol (which of course would have been a policy approved by a school board), and all is fine.
Nice. No information in this article and no information in the paper that was sent home to parents. How am I, as a responsible parent, supposed to send my child to school tomorrow with no idea as to what took place. Drugs? Guns? What should I be discussing with my child tonight? It is crap that there are not more details given to the parents, so I can decide if my child should be going to school tomorrow!
Your concern is understandable. Perhaps a call to your school’s principal/superintendent first thing in the morning would help put your mind at ease.
Oh, that will definitely be happening! When I called this afternoon I was told “they could not discuss it.”
pretty scarey when the police and school dont want to tell what they were looking for.
probably another bomb threat.
some idiots kept doing them at my high school a few years ago.
If it had been a bomb threat, they would have evacuated the school.
Not all schools evacuate. My high school did not do anything at all in response to bomb threats (no evacuation, no lockdown, no announcements) while a neighboring high school went into lock down mode. Letting the kids out encourages more threats…
The real story is that the kids actually had to stay in the classroom and work for 90 minutes. They must have been horrified.
Really? I was going to write a rebuttal, but then I saw that your name was Bushfan and realized it was way over your head. Carry on, simpleton.
Really? REALLY???? As a “bad parent” of local “scum” I beg to differ with your thoughts. The people of this community are a hard working bunch trying their best to make it just like everyone else in this day and age. Maybe before you pass such harsh judgement on people you don’t know you should walk a mile in their shoes……..
They may or may not have been looking for something which may or may not have been on the school’s banned item list…unless they weren’t…and we can’t tell you who they are…if they even exist…as a matter of fact, this entire conversation has been a dream.
My guess is that there was a bomb threat. Some schools no longer evacuate for the day, and instead have a process of searching while students remain on lockdown. This is the best way to handle it in my opinion. The reason they are not releasing much information is probably because nothing was found, so why make a big deal about the bomb threat? All that does is encourage more copycat behavior. If the situation is handled safely without a lot of fanfare, there is less incentive for it to happen again. If my assumption is correct, then I say kudos to the school district for their handling of the situation.
Best way to handle it till one goes off. I would hope they always evacuate and not play Russian roulette with our children’s lives .I would guess you don’t have children in school to form a opinion like that.
Russian Roulette? Hardly. How big do you think a bomb would be if it were placed in the school by a student? We aren’t talking about an atomic bomb here. It would be of the pipe bomb variety, and it would have to be placed in either a locker or bathroom. The classrooms would provide adequate protection and safety. I would guess you don’t have much knowledge of how schools operate to form an opinion like yours.
they evacuate the building for bomb scares always not sometimes
Really? No one mentioned the elephant in the room. I will. Bath salts?
As a parent of a student at the Mountain View School, i am glad to know that our children are being protected while in the hands of the school system via safety response programs. But i am OUTRAGED (along with several parents) at the lack of communication from the school as to what dangers are possibly present. Was it a gun, knife, drugs…..what do i as a parent and my child as a student need to be concerned about and watching out for. Furthermore, if our children are individually brought into a private room and searched by police and school staff, we as parents have the right to know why. Not divulging this information to the parents and student is just another example of the major lack of respect and concern for the parents and students by RSU 24 particularly the principal and superintendent of our school. I say another example because since the hire of the new principal at the beginning of this school year the organization and communication regarding students and parents has been appalling at best. And even in the midst of this potentially dangerous situation it remains status quot. Disgusting!!! Shame on you RSU24 and shame on your staff.
I agree with your frustration. As a parent, I would feel the same! You have the right to know why your kids were searched, and you should definitely fight to find out. The district owes you an explanation.
P.S. Your name should be “Surlamer”…”mer” is feminine in French, so the correct article would be “la”
As a parent of a student at the Mnt. View School, i am glad to know that our children are being protected while in the hands of the school system via safety response programs. But i am OUTRAGED (along with several parents) at the lack of communication from the school as to what dangers are possibly present. Was it a gun, knife, drugs…..what do i as a parent and my child as a student need to be concerned about and watching out for. Furthermore, if our children are individually brought into a private room and searched by police and school staff, we as parents have the right to know why. Not divulging this information to the parents and student is just another example of the major lack of respect and concern for the parents and students by RSU 24 particularly the principal and superintendent of our school. I say another example because since the hire of the new principal at the beginning of this school year the organization and communication regarding students and parents has been appalling at best. And with even in the midst of this potentially dangerous situation it remains status quot. Disgusting!!! Shame on you RSU24.
Yes, shame on a school district for acting swiftly and enacting their safety protocols to ensure the safety of the children. Yep, bad idea when the armchair quarterbacks who know zero about running a school district can sit back and say what “needed” to be done. A school board policy most likely covers this protocol. You may have access to that if you request it. If you do not like the protocol, take it up with the school board….make suggestions, etc. I am quite certain that everything in that district’s (and any other district’s) procedures probably makes sense to people who have to deal with this sort of thing.
To me, it makes perfect sense that a school would not disclose what they were looking for unless they found it. To disclose what they MIGHT be looking for just leads to chaos, speculation and makes an already tough situation harder to deal with for everyone.
If the school had evacuated the kids (and how many phonecalls and stressed out parents would there have been to possibly have to come get their kids early, etc) and found nothing, the district would be crucified for wasting precious educational time with the kids. You can’t please all of the armchair quarterbacks all the time.
Now, if you have other issues with your principal (new this year as you say), that has nothing to do with this issue (which was probably discussed with the superintendent who would have most likely made the call on the procedure to be followed). Maybe the administration should have sat around for a day or two debating how best to handle it or better yet, get the advice of the “experts” who are so outraged by how it was handled.
As your child (and you as a parent) should be prepared for as your child goes through school is this: Some kids will bring drugs to school. Some kids will come to school ON drugs. Sometimes drunk parents will drop their kids off at school or come to meetings smelling of marijuana. Some kids will most certainly have a weapon on them. If you want metal detectors at the entrances, take it up with the school board.
I am also a parent of multiple children in MVS. I feel that the problem didn’t lie with the procedure. The Principal identified a potentially dangerous situation at the school, placed the school under lock-down, and called the police. Problems arose when the SUPERINTENDENT took control and failed to give parents and taxpayers adequate information regarding the situation. Students were understandably nervous as they didn’t know what was going on, but when they came home to their parents for clarification, we couldn’t provide any. Tax-paying parents were kept in the dark. A principal can’t easily override the super in a situation like this. An abundantly, over the top, letter of clarification was sent home today with more information than we needed, but hey–maybe sh’e reading all of those nasty Facebook posts about the RSU!
As a parent of a student at the Mnt. View School, i am glad to know that our children are being protected while in the hands of the school system via safety response programs. But i am OUTRAGED (along with several parents) at the lack of communication from the school as to what dangers are possibly present. Was it a gun, knife, drugs…..what do i as a parent and my child as a student need to be concerned about and watching out for. Furthermore, if our children are individually brought into a private room and searched by police and school staff, we as parents have the right to know why. Not divulging this information to the parents and student is just another example of the major lack of respect and concern for the parents and students by RSU 24 particularly the principal and superintendent of our school. I say another example because since the hire of the new principal at the beginning of this school year the organization and communication regarding students and parents has been appalling at best. And with even in the midst of this potentially dangerous situation it remains status quot. Disgusting!!! Shame on you RSU24.