After a student allegedly threatened to “shoot up the school,” parents are concerned whether or not the district took action.
At the latest Eastern Regional High School Board of Education meeting, parents questioned the district’s ability to prevent school shootings, especially in light of the district’s handling of the recent incident involving 18-year-old student Jacob Finkelstein, who allegedly threatened to “shoot up the school.”
According to a press release from the Voorhees Township Police Department released on Feb. 16, police were made aware of the threat on Thursday, Feb. 15.
On that day, police arrested Finkelstein on charges of second-degree false public alarm and one count of third-degree terroristic threats.
However, some parents and students are skeptical about when the school district received the information about the threat.
At this week’s BOE meeting, several parents said they believe Eastern officials were given information about the alleged threat against Eastern a week before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14, but Voorhees Police were not notified about the threat against Eastern until after the shooting in Florida.
In addition to parents’ complaints at the meeting, Voorhees Committeewoman Michelle Nocito contacted The Sun on Friday, Feb. 23, to say she was the one who notified police of the incident.
Nocito says she was in a group chat with about 10 other concerned parents on the morning of Feb. 15 talking about the threat made to Eastern. Eventually, the group concluded someone should contact the police.
Nocito said at 11:06 a.m. that morning, she called the Voorhees Township Police Department to report the threat.
“As mothers in this chat, we were concerned that the school administration did not report these threats to the proper authority to let them determine how these threats should be handled,” Nocito said.
In comments made to The Sun, Capt. Carmen Del Palazzo, public information officer for Voorhees Police, confirmed Nocito did make a call to report information about the threat to the department’s deputy chief on the morning of Feb. 15.
Del Palazzo said he could not comment on when or if the district reached out to police about the threat.
Eastern Principal Robert Tull and Superintendent Harold Melleby, Jr. could not be reached for comment Friday, Feb. 23.
During the public portion for this week’s BOE meeting, Voorhees resident Brandy Brocco said her daughter reached out to Tull after she heard about Finkelstein’s threats a week before the shooting in Florida.
According to Brocco, the administration took no immediate action.
“I want to know what the protocol is when a student comes to you with fear. They’re afraid. They say something is being said. Something is going to happen,” Brocco said. “What is the protocol? Because, to this day, my child is still afraid to come to school, because when they go to somebody, nothing is done, or in that child’s eyes, feels like nothing is being done.”
Melleby said he couldn’t talk about specific situations in public.
“If you want to speak with me privately, what I’d like to do is find out why, if in fact your daughter went to somebody and that person didn’t do anything — that concerns me,” Melleby said.
In a call with The Sun a few hours before this week’s meeting, Melleby said he could not give specifics about the incident.
According to Brocco, her daughter spoke with Tull again after the administration received an email last Monday evening, Feb. 12, from another parent saying her daughter was fearful to come to school after reading group text messages between members of Eastern’s track team that revealed information about the threat.
Tull said when he found out that the student did not have copies of the messages, he called Brocco’s daughter down to his office to see if she was privy to the chat, which she was.
“Two other administrators were with me. We printed it out and started looking at the trail on the group chat,” Tull said.
However, it was not until Thursday, Feb. 15, that a report was made to police.
At press time, The Sun could not confirm if or when Eastern officials had reached out to police.
Brocco questioned why it appeared that district officials did not investigate the threat when her daughter first reached out to school officials.
“My daughter came to you specifically and told you, and your response to her was ‘There’s nothing I can do until he shoots up the school.’”
Tull told Brocco he would not respond that comment.
Board president Bob DeCicco then made it clear to the board and parents those type of “back and forth” comments would not be tolerated.
Parents say the obscure timeline of events surrounding the threat stems from the school not doing enough to clearly communicate with parents.
As of the Feb. 21 board meeting, the district did not release any information addressing the threat. The only documents concerning the threat on the school’s website include the media release from Voorhees Police and a general letter from Tull regarding the shooting in Florida.
“To have no communication, leaves us to our own devices,” Voorhees resident Marci Rosenstein said. “We’ve heard nothing from the school still.”
Parents say they did not receive a district “robocall” until the early evening of Feb. 16, which simply notified parents of the media release from police.
Melleby said he could not release any information prior to the Camden County prosecutor’s office completing its investigation.
“In debriefing this situation, one of the things that we will make a better effort at doing is being more transparent,” Melleby said. “But I will tell you this — it was not a matter of hiding anything. It really wasn’t. We were working in conjunction with the police and prosecutor’s office. We were not trying to brush anything under the carpet. I’m sorry that wasn’t communicated.”
Melleby said such information would be transmitted to students and parents in the future.
Along with more transparency, students and parents demanded the board implement new methods of security, such as metal detectors and more “active shooter” drills.
Voorhees resident Shari Kauffman questioned how often the district conducts drills, particularly throughout lunch periods.
“You have 2,000 students eating all over your school, and what happens if someone comes in with a gun?” Kauffman asked. “These are real fears kids have every day walking through the door.”
Melleby said the district is monitored by the state Department of Education regarding such drills.
Tull also said there are drills during lunch, including evacuations and lockdowns, however, he said the last lunch evacuation drill took place on April 10, 2017.
According to the meeting agenda, a security drill took place on Jan. 19 at 9:10 a.m.
“We’re still going through this year,” he said. “We have to do some more (drills) like this between now and the end of the school year.”
Two students, sophomore Noelle Scott and junior Kaya McIver, thanked the board for the administration’s support of a walkout this week to honor victims of the Florida shootings, but expressed their developing fears to roam Eastern’s halls.
“We would just like to know what you guys could do to make this school a little bit safer and a little more comfortable walking around the school without threats by another student, as we did last week,” Scott said.
Tull encouraged the students to come forward when such threats are being made.
Both he and Melleby had a meeting scheduled for Feb. 22 with Voorhees Chief of Police Louis Bordi to discuss how to further secure Eastern.
“If you see something, say something,” Tull said. “It’s our job to do diligence and check out what you’re saying. And, if we find some substantiation in it, then we can move in a certain way.”
