‘It shouldn’t be chaos.’ Loveland school officials apologize for shooting threat response

Loveland Police Chief Tim Doran, holding microphone, is seated alongside five Thompson School District administrators and Loveland High School Principal Michael James while speaking at a public forum at Loveland High School on Thursday, April 13, 2023, about what took place following a shooting threat that closed the school March 29.

LOVELAND — Principal Michael James and a Thompson School District official apologized to parents and other community members Thursday night for the chaotic situation March 29 at Loveland High School and cancellation of classes less than 45 minutes into the school day because of a shooting threat that was investigated by police and quickly dismissed as not credible.

Speaking at a public forum in the school’s auditorium, James acknowledged that he had been informed by Loveland police and district security personnel that the threat was not deemed credible before a morning staff meeting.

Yet, given that six people had been killed two days earlier at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee, and two administrators were shot by a student a week earlier at Denver’s East High School, James said he felt compelled to mention the threat to staff and chose to do so at the end of the meeting, rather than the beginning.

That was one of many communications breakdowns that occurred, fueling fear and creating confusion among students, staff and concerned parents and guardians receiving panicked phone calls and text messages from their students as rumors and speculation spread wildly on social media.

“Who’s at fault here?” Loveland Police Chief Tim Doran asked. “It’s fear.”

About 60 people, mostly parents, attended the forum with a dozen or so asking questions of a panel of TSD administrators seated at a table on the stage with James and Doran.

More: 2 Loveland schools close over rumors of violence; police say no credible threats were made

The staff meeting that morning at Loveland High ended about 9 a.m., 15 minutes before classes were scheduled to begin on the school’s standard late-start Wednesday schedule and 30 minutes after Loveland police and Thompson School District’s security team had determined that the anonymous threat received at 8:12 a.m. was not credible.

Following the staff meeting, several teachers left the building immediately, with some telling students to leave, as well. Others who had not yet arrived chose not to come in, multiple TSD administrators have said.

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One parent speaking at the forum said those teachers left the building not out of fear for their own safety, but because they believed the best way to protect their students was to force the school to close for the day because there weren’t enough teachers to cover classes.

That’s ultimately what happened, with the district citing “the schedule disruption within the school,” for its decision to dismiss students and staff at 9:45 a.m.

James was placed on administrative leave the following day by TSD while it conducted an investigation. He was reinstated Monday, April 10. Asked if any of the teachers had been disciplined for their actions, TSD chief human resources officer, Bill Siebers, said he could not discuss personnel matters.

Looking back on his decision to tell staff about the threat, James said he would have handled it differently if he had realized some would respond the way they did.

“I didn’t realize that until the chaos was happening from about 9 to 9:15,” he said.

One parent said her child, told to run from the building by a staff member when he arrived that morning, was hiding underneath a car in the parking lot when she returned to pick him up.

Another parent with two students at the school said she texted the older one to go find the younger one, who was hiding behind cars in the parking lot, to make sure he was OK, only to receive a response that he couldn’t because his teacher had locked everyone in the classroom and wouldn’t let anyone leave.

More: ‘We need to understand what really happened.’ Loveland High threat, closure to be addressed at public forum

The fear and confusion caused panic both inside and outside the building, parents said.

Was the school really that unprepared for a situation like this, they wanted to know.

Todd Piccone, TSD’s chief operations officer, said there are policies and procedures in place that are constantly being revised and updated based on what school districts, law enforcement and others learn from other incidents, conferences and training opportunities throughout Colorado and the country. Every school safety threat is different, though, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Mistakes were made by multiple people in this instance, he said.

“There’s no one person to apologize; we all take responsibility for what happened,” Piccone said. “I have kids in the district, who have gone through the district, we all have kids, and that morning was not what it should be. … It shouldn’t happen like that. It shouldn’t be chaos.”

Parent Jessica Graves came to Thursday night’s forum to learn what went wrong that day. She was still seeking answers when she left.

“I’m in health care, and I know every business has policies and procedures for what was supposed to happen,” she said. “I feel like they’re there, and they’re in place and they just were blatantly not followed, or they need to revise them so it’s more clear for everyone.”

The actual threat received March 29 through the Colorado Safe2Tell program did not mention Loveland High or any school by name, Piccone said, but was directed to Loveland and then the high school through the procedures used by Safe2Tell analysts. Piccone read the message out loud Thursday night, noting the wording was similar to anonymous school threats received by schools in several states that day.

“I got told by someone there was going to be a school shooting today,” Piccone said, reading from the screen of his cellphone.

TSD Superintendent Marc Schaffer promised the district was listening to the concerns of parents and said a similar forum was held previously with Loveland High staff members. He, Piccone and James met earlier Thursday with the school’s student council to get their input and are also working with the district’s three advisory committees made up of elementary, middle and high school students.

Other parents said they were generally pleased with the responses they received.

“It’s a big, complicated problem we’re having, the whole country, and I don’t think anybody has all the right answers,” parent Christine Busch said afterward. “But I really felt like everyone who was here tonight, up on the stage, wants to learn from what happened here and put new procedures in place that will keep the kids safer.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Loveland school officials apologize for March shooting threat response