PEORIA, Ill. — Communication was the main issue among the group of Kellar Primary School parents expressing their frustration with the school board following an incident in late April on a Peoria Public School bus.
“In today’s world, we feel it is essential to have transparent communication between the school and parents,” parent Nick Yates said.
On April 27 around 8:30 a.m., a student brought an “inappropriate object” on a school bus.
In a statement on May 4, spokesperson Haleemah Na’Allah said the student who brought the object was taken from the bus straight to the principal’s office where it was confiscated.
When pressed further, Na’Allah declined to be more specific past “inappropriate object.” Parents told 25 News that their children told them it was a knife.
At the school board meeting Monday night, Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat still did not call the object a knife.
Some parents feel not even naming the object doesn’t take the situation seriously. They were calling for accountability in deciding when and how parents are notified of safety threats at the school.
School bus driver and parent Whitney Creath heard about the incident from a coworker. She also recently had five students removed from her bus and barred from riding for the rest of the year because of a similar situation.
Creath’s children were on the bus with the knife. She wants the district to focus as much attention on communicating safety information to parents as it focuses on keeping up school attendance.
“I’d love to see as many communications about safety and what is or is not allowed at school as much as I did about my children, whether they were in attendance or not,” Creath said.
School board President Martha Ross was not present at the meeting.
Na’Allah said mass notifications were not used in the absence of an active and widespread threat. Kherat stood by that decision at Monday night’s board meeting, saying they base notification decisions on the imminence of the threat, whether or not it could spread, and if the threat was contained. Since all three criteria were met, they did not put out a notification.
Because the district has over 12,800 students, she says the district intercepts “inappropriate objects all the time.”
“Our threat assessment team abides by a series of time-tested procedures when responding to safety concerns across the district,” according to a statement. “As displayed by this instance, our staff are trained to swiftly de-escalate matters before they pose a threat to students and staff. Mass notifications are not utilized in the absence of an active and/or widespread threat.”
Parents also called for the district to establish a committee to address bullying concerns, and social-emotional learning and re-evaluate when the school communicates with parents.
Board member Gregory Wilson, who does not represent the district Kellar is in, said he would follow up with parents to address their communication concerns.
