North Penn Addresses Safety Petition, Threats Made To School

LANSDALE, PA — The North Penn School District responded in further detail Thursday to a recent petition demanding a more comprehensive response to recent threats made at the middle school.

The 8th grade student who made the threats on Dec. 13 is no longer attending Pennfield Middle School, the district said. They did not clarify if the student had been expelled or left voluntarily.

One of the chief demands of the Change.org petition, which had 2,700 signatories as of Friday morning, was that the student be expelled.

>>See previous story: Petition Criticizes North Penn's Response To School Threats

The school district added that contrary to statements made in the petition, the student who made the threats did not create a "hit list" of targeted students.

"The investigation determined the list does not exist," Pennfield Principal Sean O'Sullivan wrote in update that was sent to middle school families Thursday. "The only list that existed was of students who police wanted to speak with because they may have had information regarding the situation."

The district said that they reported the threats to Hatfield Police and that an investigation ensued, and the school was determined to be safe.

In addition to expelling the student, the petition calls for the student to be criminally prosecuted, and cites examples of similar punishments being doled out in a Luzerne County school threat case earlier this year.

The petition also demands a revision of North Penn district policy, specifically codifying expulsion and prosecution as the response to threats of this nature.

"As concerned parents and community members, we are demanding that the following actions occur, in an effort to ensure the safety and emotional well-being of our children and the staff of the North Penn School District," the petition states.

North Penn Superintendent Curtis Dietrich will hold his next public Community Conversations Meeting on Monday, Jan. 13 from noon to 1 p.m. at the North Penn Educational Services Center, which is located at 401 E. Hancock Street. Families and community members are invited to bring concerns on all school topics forth at the event. See here to reserve your seat.