Below is a letter submitted by a reader. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or sentiments of The Bay Net.
Leonardtown High School “Incident” Communication Failure
To: St Mary’s County Commissioners, Dr Martirano and Mr. Forest
I am extraordinarily dismayed with the poor communications during this “Columbine-like” event at Leonardtown High today. Around 8:30-8:45am, someone spotted somebody with a gun. The school quickly went into lockdown and the police responded in force. Good response from law enforcement.
After that point, no one choose to communicate the situation to the parents and community. Does no one but the parents whose hearts were in their throats today remember Columbine? The word shot like fire through the community that there was a potential armed intruder and the school was in lockdown, primarily because of the kids with cell phones.
There was no word as to whether or not the school had been swept for an intruder and that the kids were now locked safe inside. There was no word on the Board of Education or County websites, no recordings on their phones. When you call the County Government, they offer a prompt to 4911 for Emergency Messages but there were none. There was nothing on Channel 95. The info on STAR-FM was next to useless. When you called the Board of Education and followed the prompt to “Public Information”, you heard a message that Ms Thomas was away on Thursday…..so? Who was doing her job when it really counted on Friday?
The Bay Net had on-scene reporting and access to the police scanner. I would give them a C (they never got a high confidence answer to the below question), every one else an F in communications. I don’t want to hear that “if you had come to the school, we would have told you.” Rushing to the scene is not the right response and had this been a real disaster would only have added to the problems. I stayed away and monitored the radio and TV, and kept checking the websites.
What I wanted to know while the event went on was, “Are the kids now safe?” Once that question be answered my next question would have been, “what do they want me to do, and how will they kids get home?”
The use of communications was an unmitigated disaster today. Luckily, no one was hurt. To the Commissioners and the County Administrator and County Government, you failed. I don’t want any pabulum or excuses. I want you to respond and tell me how this is going to be fixed. And I expect the county to run the occasional drill to show it can communicate.
If you need some help, call me.
Ted Klapka, Tall Timbers
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