Threat assessment team to be considered

Talk about it

It could have been handled better.

That was the consensus opinion among Red Wing School Board members following a possible gun threat last week at Twin Bluff Middle School.

Supt. Stan Slessor admitted Monday he should have notified police days earlier, as soon as rumors of a gun threat emerged.

“That was my mistake,” he told School Board members. “The police can do a better job with investigating than we can.”

Instead, school officials waited until Nov. 9 – at least two school days after initial reports – to alert police to rumors that a student may have been bringing a gun to school. The purported threat was not carried out, but School Board member Perry Sekus said the matter should have been dealt with differently.

He reiterated calls for a threat assessment team, which he said could be immediately called upon in the case of serious school threats to issue a response recommendation.

The community so far has been cold to the idea, Sekus said.

“There’s been an unwillingness by our law enforcement and our county attorney to do that,” he said. “I don’t understand that.”

Slessor said the concept will be discussed Tuesday, when school officials meet with local police and members of the Goodhue County Attorney’s Office to discuss procedure in school threat situations.

See Wednesday’s print edition for full details.

Tags: local news, local government, red wing school board, middle school, news, threat