Manistique Public Schools is holding a special school safety meeting to discuss parents' concerns

MANISTIQUE, Mich. (WLUC) – More than 150 parents raised concerns about school safety at Manistique Public Schools on Tuesday. This comes after some parents say threats have been made to students.

Parents filled the Manistique High School auditorium Tuesday evening for a special school safety meeting. Superintendent Kristina Hansen outlined what safety protocols are already in place and how the district is working closely with city and county police.

Parents shared their concerns about recent threats and bullying. Hansen says school officials and staff are the front lines for school safety.

“Every training we have done regarding school safety first emphasizes the importance of connections and relationships with students and that is really the perspective we work from. Our school staff does a fantastic job of building relationships because they are the first to notice when something doesn’t seem quite right,” Hansen said.

Earlier this month, police investigated a threat via text message. The investigation found that no credible threat was made against any Schoolcraft County School at the time.

Parents were angry at Tuesday night’s meeting, saying the threat was investigated and only reported to parents after the investigation was completed.

“Would you tell us about this if there hadn’t been a Facebook message? Because we are the parents we should have known that day and it shouldn’t have taken someone to post something on Facebook to figure all this out, that’s a damn failure on your part ma’am,” one parent said.

Manistique’s public safety director says law enforcement can’t reveal all tactics so they can stay ahead of future threats.

“You’ll never know what we’re going to do next because if our tactics are 100 percent available, if our planning is 100 percent available, if we tell you everything we communicate about, everyone knows about it. and they will be much further ahead of us, we are going to release what we can,” said Tim Russell, Manistique Public Safety Director.

The next Manistique Public School Board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 20.