Salem's School Emergency Protocols Review Promptly Put To The Test

SALEM, MA — Two weeks after Superintendent Steve Zrike said the district intended to review and learn from the lessons in communications surrounding an emergency event, those procedures were once again put to the test following a bomb threat on Thursday that caused the evacuation of the Carlton Innovation School.

The threat came two weeks after what was determined to be a "hoax swatting call" threat of an active shooter at Salem High School in which a text message notification of the incident failed to go out to Salem families.

"After the hoax swatting threat that we received before February break," Zrike said, "I came on and did a Facebook Live right after that. We assessed how our response was and how it could be improved moving forward. We examined our protocols, coordination with Salem police, and our communication with families.

"We're very grateful for the response of our emergency partners, our staff and the response, and everybody's attentiveness to the needs of our students and staff. In reflection, we discussed the importance of providing more clarity to families about how we manage school emergencies."

On Thursday, a bomb threat at the Satanic Temple on Bridge Street forced the evacuation of that area, including students and staff of the Carlton Innovation School to Salem High School.

"Responsible public safety management mandates that we take these threats seriously," Salem Acting Mayor Robert McCarthy, Police Chief Lucas Miller and Zrike said in a joint statement released late Thursday morning. "To that, we notified citizens to evacuate the immediate area."

Salem police and the district responded with a series of messages on social media to families aimed at keeping everyone updated on the situation and the resolution, which came about 90 minutes after the initial alert when police gave the "all clear" in the area and determined there was "no danger."

"The Salem Police Department would like to recognize and thank the K9 officers from the National Park Service and Massachusetts State Police for their rapid and professional response to the incident," Salem police posted on their social media account. "With their assistance, we were able to rapidly sweep and clear the area and determine that there were no explosive devices.

The joint statement said the students were moved back to Carlton once the road and area were reopened to residents and traffic and that parents were welcome to come to the school at any time.

School departure times remained the same for all Salem Public Schools on Thursday.

"We apologize for the inconvenience, and we will speak to all students in an age-appropriate fashion to address any and all concerns they have," the statement said.

Zrike said that "while we can't give you all the details of how we plan, some of that — as you can imagine — is confidential" school leaders thought it would be helpful to offer guidance on what families can do to support the district in an emergency and how to gain information as part of a "Crisis Caregiver Guide" here.

"Moving forward we will continue to keep you updated on our safety and crisis plans," Zrike said. "We are working on our reunification plans in the event of an emergency where students have to be displaced and how we would reunify them with their families. That is the current work we are focused on with our safety team that meets monthly.

"We are going to be drilling and practicing that with our schools this spring to make sure we are getting our protocols organized around how to ensure smooth reunification. This is a continual work in progress with our emergency partners."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)