Nodaway Valley reviews safety after Creston hoax

School safety is at the top of every school administrator’s mind these days.

The Creston Community School District was the recipient of a false alarm last Tuesday morning. Union County Dispatch received a call that said there was an active shooter in one of the community’s school buildings.

When the call came in to dispatch, the Creston school administrators were in a meeting at central office, located at a building home to some of the district’s youngest learners. As they saw law enforcement drive by the building with lights and sirens activated, the administrators checked their phones to see if the school’s security system had identified any threat.

“We said, ‘oh good, it’s not us,’” said Creston Superintendent Deron Stender. “We thought maybe it was a bad accident.”

Within a minute or two, building principals began to be called back to their respective buildings.

“I still didn’t have any information on what was happening,” Stender said. “I actually received a phone call from the Lenox superintendent (David Henrichs) while I was waiting.”

Henrichs told Stender he had heard things were pretty bad in Creston and asked what he could do to help.

“I didn’t know what he was referencing,” Stender said. “He said, we’ve heard that there’s kids that have been involved in a school shooting. I said thank you very much Dave; I appreciate the offer and I’ve got to go.”

It was at that point Stender triggered a district-wide lockdown from his cellphone, a feat only possible because of a new security system put into place last year. The old system required Stender contact an administrator at each building to initiate lockdown procedures.

Despite the lockdown being in effect, information was sparse.

One student was in the bathroom when the lockdown sounded, informing students to go to their classrooms. Her mom told the Creston News Advertiser she came out of the bathroom and saw law enforcement with guns. A sibling of that student was also in lockdown not far away, at Southwestern Community College. Their parents were quite concerned.

When officers arrived, they conducted an immediate sweep of the high school. According to the Creston Police Department, no evidence of a shooting was found.

Local measures

Superintendent Paul Croghan told the newspaper that while Nodaway Valley wasn’t in session that day due to spring break, his other district (CAM) was in session. As soon as administrators returned to Nodaway Valley after break, they were able to debrief on what would happen if the worst occured here.

Croghan described the situation as a “constant reminder” and said training is extremely important.

“You can’t practice everything or think of every scenario but you have to rely on your training. You’ll go back to your training under pressure, so you really have to take those things seriously,” he said. “We do fire, tornado and bus evacuation drills with students. Hopefully we won’t have to use it, but the moment we do, they’ll do the things we’re supposed to do.”

While Nodaway Valley does not currently do active shooter training with students, Croghan said staff have trained and are well-versed on what to do in those situations. He said a log is kept of who has gone through the training and it is revisited when necessary.

Nodaway Valley works closely with local law enforcement and officers stay constantly aware of what is going on in and around the schools. They check entrances for the district and make sure that only one entrance is used to a building during the school day, a measure recently put into effect. If you don’t enter through the main entrance, you’re not allowed in and cameras are heavily used for these purposes as well as others.

The district also opens its doors to law enforcement officers often so they’re familiar with the district’s facilities should they have to respond there to an emergency. Law enforcement canines have even trained in the district’s buildings from time to time during breaks. Croghan described that as a threefold benefit to the officer, the dog and the school district.

Though dozens of parents showed up when Creston had its false alarm last week, both Stender and the Creston police chief agree parents should avoid coming to the school. Croghan echoed that for Nodaway Valley, and the district will work to disseminate important information through multiple channels as quickly as possible.

There is a reunification site the district would use in the event of an emergency, although the district does not make that location public unless they need to, Croghan said.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens, more than 30 Iowa districts were impacted by these false alarms Tuesday, including schools in Cedar Rapids, North Liberty, Iowa City, Clinton, Davenport, Muscatine, Cerro Gordo County, Story County, Lee County, Waterloo, Boone, Charles City, Clear Lake, Des Moines, Oskaloosa, Marshaltown, Monona, Nevada, North Liberty, Ottumwa and Decorah.

DPS is continuing to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate and identify the caller who initiated this “swatting,” as it is known. Bayens said the initial information leads investigators to believe the calls are similar in nature and likely originated from a single source.

Croghan added that a recent screening of Nodaway Valley’s facilities for school safety vulnerabilities brought valuable information to district leaders. They have grant funding available to them that they plan to use to improve their own security measures.