Winfield - Putnam County Board of Education members say they are proud of how the school district handled a potential threat to Hurricane High School last week.
Superintendent John Hudson said Putnam County Schools received information from a student that there may have been a threat to Hurricane High School Friday. The school district, Putnam County Sheriff's Office and Hurricane police began immediately investigating the threat. Details about the reported threat were not immediately available because of the pending investigation.
"Based on all the information we received, we were confident that all the students were safe and secure," Hudson said.
The district sent an announcement to parents as soon as administrators felt comfortable that students were safe. Hudson said the announcement was to inform, not to cause concern to parents and students.
However, Friday morning multiple parents expressed concern over the announcement on social media, saying that it was vague and that their children would be staying home from school. Hudson said the announcement was phrased carefully in order to make sure they did not impede on the ongoing investigation into the threat. Hudson said he received no calls from parents about the incident.
"I can assure you as superintendent, I would not have let one student or staff member enter that school if I didn't have confident information from law enforcement that we were OK," Hudson said.
Despite these concerns, attendance was high at Hurricane High School that day, according to school board member Bruce Knell.
School board member Rob Cunningham said he was impressed by the student who reported the threat. He said it reflects the district's work.
"What we're doing working with students, telling them that if you see something bad, say something, is sinking in," Cunningham said. "I think we really did a good thing in a bad situation."
The district also unanimously approved a change to the district's policy manual, allowing teachers to be rewarded if they submit to the board their intention to retire earlier than March 1. Teachers will be given $500 from the Early Notification of Retirement line item established by the West Virginia Department of Education. The previous deadline was January 15.
The next Putnam County Board of Education meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 6.
Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @schmitzmedia on Twitter.