UPDATE: About Pathfinder K-8’s message to families

1:41 PM: Lots of questions about this, and after trying for almost four hours to find out more, we still have no additional details, but since people are still asking, we wanted to let you know we tried. Many parents forwarded us this message sent to Pathfinder K-8 families by principal Dr. Britney Holmes around 9:40 this morning:

Out of an abundance of caution, Pathfinder will have increased security on campus as police respond to a community disturbance. Please know – there is not a known imminent threat to our school. Our students and staff are not in harm’s way.

Pathfinder students and staff are my top priority. We are working with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the district Safety and Security team to provide additional support. You or your student may see the additional security on or near our campus today.

As our usual process requires, if we have an urgent issue at our campus, I will enact safety procedures such as a shelter-in-place. As a reminder, during a shelter-in-place, all exterior doors are locked and students remain indoors while the normal instructional day continues.

Because this is a police investigation, I am not able to provide a lot of details, but I will be keeping you as informed as possible.

After combing the usual places we find police-incident numbers and brief call characterizations, we found nothing in that area, so we contacted SPD public affairs and they told us they couldn’t find anything nearby either. We drove around the campus area in the late morning and saw no police nor other signs of trouble. We then asked precinct commander Capt. Martin Rivera, and he replied, “We have checked with our staff at the Precinct, and they do not recollect any calls there.” The Seattle Public Schools media office, which speaks for principals, said, “We do not have additional details at this time but will share more with families as information becomes available.” If we eventually find out anything, we’ll update.

8:45 PM: Pathfinder principal Dr. Holmes elaborated a bit in a followup message to families tonight:

Yesterday, our school was made aware of an individual who made a threat to themselves that could occur at our school. We called Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) safety and security who responded and provided additional support.

SPD contacted and followed up with this individual yesterday evening. Our students and staff did not experience an imminent threat to our school, which allowed school to proceed as regularly scheduled today. …

That description suggests any police report would likely be attached to the individual’s residential address and not the school, explaining why SPD couldn’t find anything in the area when we asked.

19 Replies to "UPDATE: About Pathfinder K-8's message to families"

  • Pls January 30, 2024 (1:56 pm)

    I would have preferred no email over an extremely vague message with no additional context. Also, saying there is police presence when there isn’t is strange.

    • Cmp January 30, 2024 (3:41 pm)

      Same, we’re all still on edge from the swat team situation

      • KW January 30, 2024 (4:34 pm)

        We are too!  

  • Salmon Room Mom January 30, 2024 (3:21 pm)

    Yeah, this was garbage. I’m a parent who received text 1 of 2 but not text 2 of 2, many others received only text 2 and others got none.  The email (same info as in the texts) promises close communication and updates but we received absolutely nothing at all, as of this writing.So.  No police, no issue, no problem. Just a ‘warning’ text sent out that scared parents unnecessarily and still absolutely no idea what this was all about.

  • Heather January 30, 2024 (3:35 pm)

    I appreciate the communication. Thank you Dr. Holmes. 

    • Jj February 1, 2024 (1:38 pm)

      Agree.

  • PF Mom January 30, 2024 (3:40 pm)

    Thank you for looking into this.  It’s frustrating to get a vague message about a SIP and no updates so far.  But I figured it couldn’t be too serious if WSB didn’t have anything on it.  I really appreciate your dedicated service to the community. <3

  • Jeff January 30, 2024 (3:40 pm)

    That statement is literally worse than saying nothing.

  • Salmon Room Mom January 30, 2024 (4:04 pm)

    and also, parents who went up to the school to try to make some sense of things noted that kids were out playing on the playground as usual, so it is very  unclear what exactly sort of shelter in place they were doing.

    • KW January 30, 2024 (4:30 pm)

      I am confused too, but the message never actually said a shelter-in-place was put into effect; only how it was defined.  I hope we will get some sort of clarification.  Sounds like a mistake, but how would that happen?   After the lockdown back in January, I always feel a bit on edge and this did not help.

    • Another Pathfinder Mom January 30, 2024 (4:34 pm)

      The email did not say there was a shelter-in-place. It said there was increased security and no known imminent threat. I would rather know there are security officers before my child comes home and tells me. I hope we find out more details but I was glad to be notified. 

  • Wow January 30, 2024 (4:51 pm)

    safety through transparency? not there

  • Parent January 30, 2024 (6:09 pm)

    I can appreciate that there are details that administration cannot share, but consistently vague communication about student safety over the course of this school year is the thing that will drive us and other parents away from SPS. I’m not sure I believe this level of lack transparency is called for, and it is so disheartening. Received an equally vague email this evening as follow up.

  • School parent January 30, 2024 (6:39 pm)

    Communication issues seem widespread in the district (SPS). Does SPS have a policy/SOP for parent notification? 

  • WSresident January 30, 2024 (9:22 pm)

    Someone threatened to harm themselves yesterday but today there was a “community disturbance” today? This is so confusing, bewildering and also feels like a boat load of lies. 

  • PF Parent January 31, 2024 (6:58 am)

    I feel like it’s weird that message out is getting so much shade. I appreciated it. “Hey, something’s up and we’re keeping an eye on it and your kids.” Imagine if there was an issue and we didn’t get a message. Y’all need to chill. 

    • Jj February 1, 2024 (1:37 pm)

      Same.

      • PF Dad February 1, 2024 (10:18 pm)

        The problem is the constant poor communication and vague posts. If it were a one-time occurrence, than yeah, whatever, but it is constant. We constantly get poor communication from Pathfinder Admin. It has been happening for 2.5 years and is really challenging to deal with, IMO. We’ve experienced this on a 1:1 basis, on a class scale, and the whole community. So you say chill, @PF Parent? Hard to when it feels like we are left in the dark all the time.

  • W January 31, 2024 (3:28 pm)

    If I knew a student or staff member threatened to harm themselves, I would not let my child go to school until I knew that was resolved. I wasn’t given the information I needed to make that decision.

Sorry, comment time is over.