Leavenworth School District’s new website feature to report threats

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The Leavenworth Unified School District’s website officially has a new feature to help report tips, ask questions or raise concerns.

Community members can use the new feature to alert the district if they feel like there’s a threat. The button on the website’s home page features four words, ‘ See Something, Say Something .’

FOX4 spoke with District Superintendent Dr. Kellen Adams and Republican County Attorney Todd Thompson on Wednesday, September 25.

Thompson claims there’s a difference between a disruption to a school day and a threat, and what happened at the high school earlier in the month was more of a threat than just a disruption.

That incident caused the creation of the new website feature, where people can submit tips without others seeing you do it. Adams said anyone can use this online form, but it’s mostly for student use.

“There is sometimes a really difficult decision that a student has to make of whether or not, ‘Do I come forward with this information?'” he said in his interview with FOX4 Wednesday.

“My peers are able to see that I went and asked the teacher for a sidebar, right? Versus this protects them so to speak with some anonymity.”

The week of Monday, September 16, at least five more were charged in juvenile court in Jackson County for making alleged threats at metro schools.

“I would say it was almost in direct response to what we believe was an uptick in that,” Adams said of recent threats and why the district created the online form.

“We’re seeing in that in both nationally as well as statewide.”

In FOX4’s interview with Adams, he said that the threat on Tuesday, September 17 wasn’t the only one they’ve received.

“As well as from surrounding districts in the metro area and otherwise, and so with that up-tick not only here but also in the metro area, we felt like it was important to take that step and increase the efficiency for communication,” he explained.

The four words, ‘See Something Say Something’ are just to the right of the school district’s logo at the top of the homepage. When you click on it, you can fill out fields like your name, email, phone number and the concern you may have. The name portion is the only one that’s required though.

On September 17th, court documents show that 18-year-old Kaden Ray Bentley from Fort Leavenworth made a threat of committing a school shooting at the high school.

Thompson came to the school district headquarters on Wednesday to talk with FOX4 alongside Adams. Thompson charged Bently with a count of aggravated criminal threat.

“I want to make sure that those that are doing it, whether haphazard or serious have consequences that others know not to repeat that action because there are ramifications for what they do,” he said in his interview.

An online form or tip line like this is not new to school districts in the metro. Olathe Public Schools for instance has a safety tip line further down on their homepage on the right-hand side.

Shawnee Mission School District Chief Communications Officer David Smith says there’s an app called Sprigeo that’s on all the student’s devices. It’s a reporting app for bullying and anything else that students can use if they feel like there’s a threat to them or someone else.

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