Threats to schools mobilize Tuba City

TUBA CITY

Two young women are in custody in a detention facility here after police investigated a threat of gun violence against Tuba City Junior High School, which was posted on Facebook.

The arrests were made after an investigation determined the two youngsters made the alleged threat – a Class 3 felony – on Monday, Feb. 26.

“When something happens like this, we’re always the first one to get called,” said Lt. Leonard Williams of the Tuba City Police District. “In this particular case, we were getting the information from Phoenix by the FBI.”

Williams further explained, “There was a young woman who called Tuba City and shared some Facebook information with us. It was kind of late in the night, about 10:30 p.m.”

Williams assigned Officer Patrick Hall to probe into the social media threat. For two days, Hall conducted an investigation that local chapter officials say caused a community panic.

Hall’s investigation on the second day was sound enough and two arrests were made, said Williams.

“Basically, there was a threat that was made to the student body of Tuba City Junior High and also here at (Tuba City High),” Williams said. “The threats, we’ll just leave it at that.

“We had a case going and those two young (women) were arrested,” he said. “And they were minors. I can’t give you the names as far as the names are concerned. Luckily, we caught them.”

The threatening post on Facebook that night read, “Imma shoot up the school Friday betta be ready….”

This post was followed by a few more posts before it was deleted just before midnight.

“Unfortunately, it was like that,” Williams said. “So the position that we have right now is we put them in custody.”

At a community meeting on March 6, a panel of school and local law enforcement officials discussed the issue and answered questions from concerned individuals.

“One little highway separates both of us, but we all go to the same store and we all use the same post office,” said Mike Sixkiller, community events coordinator and manager for the Western Navajo Fair, who called the meeting a historic event. “This is the first time that this has happened in Tuba City.”

The panel consisted of 10 individuals, including Williams.

The threat affected the entire community of Tuba City, said Sixkiller, who conducted the meeting.

“Basically, our concern is the well-being of this community,” Williams told the crowd gathered in the Warrior Pavilion at Tuba City High School. “Just joking around or being serious, we want to send a message out there that this cannot be tolerated.”

He added, “As members of this community, we’re real diverse here. We have Hopi, we have Navajo and other ethnicities around us. We’re unique here in Tuba City. We’re (in a) melting pot and we need to help each other.”

Following the threat of violence, parents were concerned about what protocols are in place to protect their children in the event of an emergency.

Under Arizona state law, school districts are required to practice two emergency response drills a year when school is in session – a lockdown, a shelter-in-place, and an evacuation.

Tuba City Unified School District on Tuesday, Feb. 27, canceled all classes while school was in session at nearby Moencopi Day School in Moenkopi, Arizona.

“So, it was really difficult understanding the level of threat,” said Sahmie Lomahquahu, acting administrator for Moencopi. “What we did was develop a protocol after establishing that it was not a threat.

“So, we went on a modified lockdown, which just (means) that our teachers, our doors, our campus were secured,” he said. “Everything was locked. Teachers were allowed only to continue instruction in their classrooms and we canceled any movement between classes … just to make sure our kids and our staff were safe.”

Myra Begay, member of the Tuba City Boarding School board, noted that it is very important for parents to respect lockdowns. TCBS that Tuesday operated on a soft lockdown, in which classroom doors and exterior building doors are locked and teaching still takes place.

Phyllis Begay, the western region director at Diné College, says at least one more security guard was added to DC’s Tuba City campus and a security checkpoint was established.

“We went back and did a briefing of what had happened the next day (Feb. 28) – where we need to look at, what we need to do, where we need to make changes,” Phyllis Begay said.

“And we did that. That was everybody’s concern, even at a higher institution.”

Schools only have three emergency procedures, according to Loren Hudson, a Diné CEO and principal at Greyhills Academy High School, where a traffic control plan is in place and an emergency response drill takes place once a month.

“Everybody signs in and everybody signs out,” Hudson explained. “We believe in training all the time.”

Hudson, who was recruited from the Flagstaff Unified School District, says he began seeing school threats at Flagstaff High School about eight years ago during his superintendency.

“And they’re very scary,” Hudson said in Navajo. “It’s very understandable but what we need to do is really understand why these threats take place. So, in looking at this situation, all of us need to start working together, speaking to one another with respect and care for one another. It’s the only way it will work.

“Let’s work together, let’s make this community powerful, let’s take control of this situation, let’s be proactive,” Hudson said. “And please, support one another. Let’s show Window Rock how to do things.

“Take an interest in your children,” he said. “Ask them what they’re reading. Let’s put our cellphones away at the dinner table and ask some questions. Teach them how to communicate, teach them how to say, ‘Yes, sir; Yes, ma’am; please; thank you; and ahxéhee’. We need to bring back fundamental teachings.”

Schools across the U.S. have received 838 copycat threats since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, according to a watchdog group.
The group, Educator’s School Safety Network, has tracked an average of 70 threats and other incidents each day at American schools in the weeks after a gunman killed 17 students and educators in Parkland.

Tuba City High also went on a lockdown after threats were made to staff on Feb. 28.

Later that same day, the Page Police Department in Page, Arizona, received an anonymous 911 call reporting a person with a gun at Page Middle School, where the incident was treated as an active shooter scenario. The school immediately implemented a hard lockdown.

“It’s kind of like a snowball effect,” Williams said of the incidents, calling the latter part of February a challenging week. “I believe we’re OK, we’re good to go, there’s no threat to any schools or to the faculty. We’re addressing these things. We’re staying above water, we’re meeting the needs of the community.”

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