A recent event at a high school volleyball game illustrated the fact that the potential for bad things involving students can happen anywhere, even in small town Missouri.
According to Superintendent of the Cole Camp School District, Christina Hess, the fast action of a Tipton patron may have averted one such bad action.
“A member of the Tipton crowd overheard a man talking on his phone, referencing stalking and whether a 16-year old would be playing on the varsity or junior varsity team. The remarks alerted her to potential danger and she immediately acted upon that belief,” said Hess.
Her decision to “see or hear something and then to say something” to local administrators set in motion an investigation that is still ongoing.
The same patron was able to secure a license plate off the vehicle the man was using to drive away, enabling law enforcement from two counties to further investigate.
Area schools were informed of the incident and administrators and coaches talked to students about being aware of their surroundings, reporting things or people that seem unusual or out of place, and the dangers of interacting with strangers while online.
“It is too easy for predators to pose as a teenager looking to make friends,” said Hess. “These social media interactions can open the door for in person meetings.”
It is currently unknown how the individual at the Tipton ballgame decided to stalk a Cole Camp 16-year old player.
According to one source, Missouri currently ranks fourth in the nation for incidents of sex trafficking, primarily due to the grid of interstate and major highways running both north-south and east-west. These major thoroughfares make trafficking movement easier.
Sex trafficking is not the only threat to schools and students said Hess.
“Recently, administrators have been flooded with information about swatting and other large scale threats to schools,” she continued. “Swatting is the practice of calling in a threat that sounds real, will need to be investigated at some level, but is done mostly to scare people and to disrupt the normal routine of the day.”
Last week, a statewide alert was posted regarding a social media swatting date. State safety officials sent out information to all schools on how to deal with call in threats.
Across the nation, school administrators have also had to deal with increased threats by students and patrons that lawfully can be deemed terroristic in nature.
“We hear more and more of students who threaten to kill someone or to make someone pay for something, or to blow up the school” said Hess. “No longer do administrators have the luxury of acting like its just the student saying something inappropriate. These threats or statements must be investigated and consequences have to be enforced,” she continued. “As a school, we can be held liable if we don’t do a thorough follow up.”
“Our primary message, for the time being, is for everyone to practice being safe. That means looking up and around as you walk from a building to your car, locking your car when you leave it, traveling in pairs and never alone if at all possible,” said Hess. “If you see something, say something to a trusted adult, to an administrator, to an SRO, to law enforcement. This is the best way to stop a potentially bad situation from happening. This was proven in Tipton last week.”
