WESTFIELD—Westfield school officials and Westfield Police reiterate that there is no threat to students at Westfield High School after two robocalls were made to parents and guardians of the school’s students over the past two days.
The robocalls had stemmed from an incident at the school, which was investigated by both the Westfield School Department and the Westfield Police Department and found to not be credible, according to School Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski and Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe. However, officials believe social media has played a role in propagating a rumor related to the incident, which has caused a lingering concern among students and parents.
“What happened is that the situation from yesterday (Thursday) is lingering to today. Rumors are going around, people are on edge,” Czaporowzki said.
A submitted photo of a Westfield Police vehicle at Westfield High School Friday.
Czaporowski said that the incident began when an anonymous tip had come in through the school’s anonymous tip system on Thursday related to a possible threat.
“We investigated that in conjunction with police and that’s where we were able to determine that it was not a legitimate threat after a joint effort,” he said.
According to McCabe, the incident had worsened after a picture of a student with a school resource officer and a vice principal at the school had made its way around social media with “They got him” as a caption.
“The picture was of a student being escorted to a quiet location to have a conversation, which is procedure,” he said.
However, McCabe said, the picture had reached what he said were hundreds of students.
Officials believe that this is part of what caused the resulting uneasiness on Friday and is what also prompted the second robocall from the school.
“The latest robocall was basically reassuring people that this is a rumor going around of the threat to safety. There was no credibility to that rumor,” Czaporowski said.
“It’s unfortunate that people are using social media to spread the rumor further, but I certainly understand the circumstances and appreciate people’s concerns,” Czaporowski also said.
In addition to the robocall, additional police presence was at the school in order to “reassure people Westfield High School is safe,” according to Czaporowski.
McCabe said that regardless of the situation, his department would continue to work toward the safety of students.
“We, as a department, are dedicated to the safety of our children and we will continue to work and investigate possible threats,” McCabe said.
McCabe though, voiced concerns with the way that electronic media played a role in the situation. McCabe said that with “unconfirmed and unknown sources” it can be difficult to determine what is and is not misinformation.
“The reality is we have people at the school, both staff and police on site, who are paid specifically to maintain and investigate issues as they relate to school safety,” he said. “Those efforts are hampered by misinformation. Whether well-intentioned or not, we find ourselves responding to the misinformation instead of the issue.”
In addition, McCabe noted that if an incident were to occur where many phone calls from cell phones occurred at once at the school or where other larger populations are, then this could potentially “crash” the cell tower.
This could hinder communications in this scenario, according to McCabe, though he said that police and other first responders would still have radio communications available.
McCabe said that an option to avoid this would be to have students forego their access to electronic media when school is in session.
According to Czaporowski, there is a policy in place regarding cell phone use from students but enforcement is limited.
“There is a policy that states that cell phones cannot be used in classes,” he said. “However, it is not enforced like it used to be.”
He added that cell phones are used by students for other means, including educational reasons, such as the use of Google Classroom.
Czaporowski said that officials are revisiting the policy pertaining to cell phone use.
