Centennial Superintendent Responds To School Threats

WARMINSTER, PA —Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden has responded to parents questioning a security breach at William Tennent High School early last month.

Bedden sent Patch two emails regarding communication over an intruder spending four hours inside the high school and another school threat a week later. Two high school parents complained about the lack of information at last week's school board meeting, leading board members to bicker with the parents and among themselves.

Bedden said there was a follow-up with the school board more than once about the arrest of an 18-year-old.

The superintendent said one mention was in the Sept. 13 Board Weekly Update along with information about the trespasser (which included a great deal of information for the board) and stated verbatim:

"Threats incident update, the Warminster Police Department has made two arrests related to the threats incident that occurred at William Tennent High School. One juvenile offender is in custody at the Youth Detention Center in Bucks County. The second offender is an adult, he was arrested and arraigned before District Justice Christopher O’Neill."

Bedden said the high school trespassing incident is still under investigation.

The subject was charged with defiant trespass and evading arrest on foot. Bucks County Juvenile Probation elected to release the juvenile back into the care of Phoenix House, Bedden said.

The juvenile then left there and was listed in NCIC as a missing person with his photo was distributed to the high school security team as a precaution against him returning to the high school campus, Bedden said.

The juvenile then returned to Phoenix House and was placed on an ankle monitor.

"The team works very hard to provide information to the board via the Board Weekly Update," the superintendent said.

In addition, Bedden said that the school district's head of security Kevin Burns informed the school board of the police actions taken during the executive session (specifically answering the questions the board asked him regarding both youths), "which was more than we had ever done unless requested by the board."

Regarding the comments by the parents/guardians on Tuesday night —which Bedden said appeared planned —the Centennial School District never sent any information out again regarding anything that was determined to be non-credible or lacked any additional necessary information.

As a side note, Bedden received the following statement from someone who observed the school board meeting on Tuesday night,

"Please know that contrary to the narratives of a few, receiving this in real time from Dr. Henrich provided me full transparency and was timely enough for me to decide on entering the building. And regarding a comment made last night: for what it's worth, releasing the rap sheet —by a public school district, no less! —of any individual being adjudicated by the criminal justice system would be an ill-informed and frankly distasteful action in the name of transparency," the statement said.

"As a parent and educator, I have never wanted to publicly celebrate the arrest of a young person who did something stupid but has to be held accountable for such a dangerous and costly (time- everyone(s) and money to taxpayers) action. And to my knowledge, CSD has never done that," Bedden said.

The threat was determined that morning not to be credible, however, that youths were charged because, "In Pennsylvania, a terroristic threat is a felony of the third degree if it causes the evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or public transportation or if it disrupts the normal operations of the location. The Swatting issue has been significant across the country, Bedden said.