There are words at the top of the incident report that no school wants to see. They were written by police in Kansas City:
“Threats of Terrorism.”
Three middle school students reportedly made threats against a new African American teacher at Kansas City’s Pembroke Hill School in September. It’s still not clear what those threats were about, which is why parents and teachers at the fancy private school are still confused, worried, and asking questions two months later.
Were the threats based on race? Physical?
The main question is why two of the students who broke the rules were allowed to come back after being suspended. All of them were allegedly put in handcuffs on September 25 and taken by police from the $30,000-per-year school. It’s still not clear if one of the students who didn’t come back did so on purpose or because they were kicked out.
“I can’t believe how it was handled,” said a Pembroke parent who had been a parent for a long time but didn’t want her name used because she was afraid that criticizing the school would lead to her kids being punished. “When did making threats against a teacher become okay?”
The parent said, “I think it’s sickening.” “The kids are scared because they saw some of their friends get arrested.” They put handcuffs on them. They drove away with them. They feel bad for the teacher. People get scared and don’t want to be around the kids when they come back. They are worried about being safe at school.
Two cases of threat
She said it was frustrating that students and parents weren’t given more thorough information. It’s even worse, she said, that one of the kids who did wrong is the child of a Pembroke board member.
“It’s not right that your privilege puts you on a board and then you use that privilege to get your kid out of a situation he shouldn’t be in,” she said.
While The Star got a copy of the police record, it doesn’t say much about the threats other than the fact that they happened.
The report says, “(Police Officer) King and I were working at Pembroke Hill School District while not on duty and were told about a threat to a teacher.”
Because the people involved are minors, their names and the specifics of what happened have been removed, which means they can’t be seen. The Star also doesn’t print the names of kids who are suspected of or charged with crimes, even if they are known, unless the kids are charged as adults.
There were no charges. The teacher no longer has those two kids in her class.
The Star asked officials at Pembroke to talk to them directly, but in response to emails, they said that two incidents did happen involving the faculty member whose name was listed in the police report as Christie D. Jones.
Jones wouldn’t talk to The Star on the record.
Jones began teaching seventh-grade English at Pembroke in May. She has been a teacher for 20 years.
Pembroke agreed that the first threat came from a middle school student in early September.
“The threat was reported to the school, and we began our standard process of threat assessment and investigation,” the school wrote to The Star. “This led to the Kansas City Police Department being notified.” “The police went to the home of the student’s family and took care of the problem from a police point of view.” After that, the student was suspended for a long time.
Jones is said to have missed a few weeks of school because he was worried about the threat. Before Jones was set to come back, the school learned of another set of threats that were sent through a text thread by some middle school students.
‘No charges’
That took place on September 25 at 3 p.m., according to the police report.
“The school used our standard threat assessment process to look into the threat and then called the off-duty Kansas City Police Department officers who were on campus at the time,” the school said. “The police were called to look into it, but no charges were brought.”
Pembroke administrators said that the school “ran a full and thorough investigation into the matter” and that students were punished as a result. One of the students didn’t come back, but it wasn’t clear if they didn’t want to or if they were kicked out. The officials said the others came back after “long-term suspensions.”
The school also said that “any threat is taken very seriously” at Pembroke. When asked if the fact that one of the students was the child of a board member affected their decision to let that kid go back to school, Pembroke administrators said, “No.”
If parents in the area were asked if the school did anything to let them know what it had done, like hold a meeting or send an email or letter, the school said it did not.
Pembroke replied, “The school’s general policy is not to make public the punishments meted out to specific students.” The school has, however, had many talks with parents who have been worried or asked questions about what happened in September.
“Based on the results of our investigation—that no charges were filed and that minors were involved—and to protect the privacy and dignity of the students and faculty member, we have not gone over this with all of their parents.”
