Principal
Today we have been able to resolve the circumstances from the January 3rd incident where it was reported to school administrators that someone had seen a “threat” on social media. Thank you to local law enforcement (LCSO), and their numerous other partners, for working with the district diligently to resolve this. As you may recall, due to receiving this information in the early evening hours of January 3rd, and an inability to gather enough information to solve the issue that night, the decision was made to cancel school for EHS and FRMS on January 4th. By the end of the day on the 4th we determined this was not a credible threat and were confident enough in the circumstances surrounding this issue to return to school the following day. Since that time, I, along with other District staff and law enforcement, have spent time on this issue each and every day. It is one we take seriously.
Earlier this afternoon a student and her family met with law enforcement. She was cooperative and honest about these circumstances and admitted to making up the fact that a threat had been seen on social media. She was cited in lieu of custody due to her honesty and cooperation and released to her parents. Subsequently, I also met with the family. Law enforcement will be pursuing appropriate charges based on these specific circumstances, and the school district will be doing the same through our discipline/due-process guidelines and policies. The family has been very cooperative and in addition to appropriate consequences, we will be looking for ways to support this student and her family in the days and weeks to come.
A reminder to our students that threats made or reported for ANY reason will be taken seriously and they have significant ramifications and consequences to not only the perpetrator, but our entire community. Thank you to our staff, students and parents for your patience as we worked through this. The safety and security of all students is our first priority. As always, if you hear or see anything that may indicate a safety issue, please report it right away.
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr., Superintendent, FRSD 28J
In an effort to help more students attend homeroom we will be adjusting the Thursday bell schedule and moving homeroom to the morning after fourth period. Please refer to the attached bell schedule to see the change.
Our JV2 Boys’ Basketball game against Junction City at 7:15 this evening has been cancelled. We apologize for the late change, all of the other games tonight are still being played at their scheduled time.
The district remains committed to doing everything possible to provide indoor athletics for our students this Winter, however, we need support from the community if athletics are going to continue. Below are brief updates regarding athletics in FRSD, addressing both EHS (district-funded athletics) as well as youth athletics that use our facilities (TSP)
EHS ATHLETICS: After a 5 day pause, our boys and girls basketball teams are back practicing and competing. Wrestling continues as well. Many districts throughout Oregon have either paused, halted all together, stopped allowing spectators, or limited spectators. At this point, all we are asking in Fern Ridge, is that folks attending our games are 100% compliant with the masking requirement, that we social distance, and do not eat in the stands. If we can continue to do that, we will stay the course. If fans are not in compliance with this we will make announcements at the game. I will not be asking staff that are supervising to go into the stands and confront individuals who are not in compliance. If it is reported that we have fans not wearing masks, we will simply need to move to limiting the number of fans attending, not allow fans in our gyms, or halt athletics altogether.
TSP ATHLETICS: We continue to be committed to allowing TSP to utilize our gyms and provide important opportunities for activity to our students. However, following masking protocols must improve in our gyms on the weekends. In Eugene 4J, Kidsports/YMCA youth athletics are not allowed in any gyms yet this year. In Springfield, spectators are limited. We are doing everything we can to continue to offer this in FRSD, however absent significant improvement in regards to wearing masks in our gyms, we will pause TSP games after this weekend.
Following these protocols helps ensure we can maintain in-person instruction. Each day this week we have had between 10 and 20 staff out who need to be home with their students who have tested positive or were close contacts, were close contacts themselves (and have not been boosted—which is the new requirement), or have tested positive. Having gyms full of our students and parents un-masked, whether at EHS athletic events, or on a Saturday/Sunday with youth sports, impacts our staff greatly, and increases the likelihood we may need to pause in-person instruction, like numerous schools and districts across the state have already done. Please help us keep our schools open.
Finally, a big thank-you to all the parents and community members that ARE following all of our safety protocols each and every time they visit a campus!
As much of Oregon is seeing, and specifically Lane County, we are experiencing a large spike in cases of COVID-19 among staff and students today. Fortunately, all of our staff have been vaccinated, and symptoms for everyone to this point have been relatively mild, and we expect them back in school soon. Since the beginning of the year, our primary concern has been to maintain in-person instruction. We have been able to do that through the creativity, teamwork and dedication of our staff, as well as by following all of the layered mitigation safety protocols. To date, we have not had to alter our calendar due to a lack of staff, or as a result a COVID outbreak. While daily in-person instruction throughout the year is our goal, all school districts in Lane County are preparing for the possibility of needing to close for short periods of time.
On Monday, ODE released a School health Advisory for Continuity of Instruction. One of the things it addresses is that the expected spike in cases, thus resulting in requirements to isolate (for those ill) or quarantine (for those that are close contacts) and the impacts on workforce stability in a wide range of sectors, including schools. We expect further updates from ODE on Friday regarding new requirements and guidance in the areas of quarantine, isolation, test to return, up-to-date vaccination status, safety protocols, athletics, testing programs and more.
The next month is critical. By mid to late January the modeling currently shows that we could be through this surge, and cases will drop off dramatically. We need the help of families and community members in order to maintain in-person instruction:
- Keep your child home if they have symptoms.
- Vaccination remains the best protection against serious illness and reduces spread of the disease.
- Limit gatherings.
- Follow safety protocols including masking, hand-washing, distancing, etc…
We will try to keep the community apprised of any changes. Below we will briefly address multiple topics I would like our students and families to prepare for.
Remote Learning: If the district needs to shift to remote learning, we are prepared to do so. We believe we can get Chromebooks issued in 24 hours to our K-8 students (H.S. students already have them), and only need to be “closed” for one day. If the district needs to close for multiple days (more than 3)…it is most likely we will look at engaging in remote learning. If the district needs to close for less than 3 days, it is most likely that we will NOT be engaging in remote learning, we will simply have no school days. In this case, there is a possibility the school year could be extended. The need to do this, if it arrives, will be last minute. We would encourage families to have a plan in place. It will be a last resort.
Athletics: For now, there are no long term changes to athletics, however due to an outbreak today among both basketball teams, both of those programs are needing to “pause” for one week. I do not want to pause athletics permanently, as we are committed to providing as normal an athletic experience for our student athletes as possible. Practicing the safety protocols listed above will be critical going forward, and for basketball teams when they return. We want to make clear to our students and parents, that while we value participation in athletics, there is a much higher risk of catching and spreading COVID for our student athletes. The primary difference here is that attending school is compulsory, while participating in athletics is voluntary. This allows the district (through state guidance) — to have different requirements for each.
Will students be required to be vaccinated and/or boosted?: I have looked into this extensively in the last few weeks, and while I certainly cannot say I am 100% sure of anything, I am comfortable making the two statements below:
- I do not expect any changes to the vaccination requirements in this school year.
- If this were ever to occur, just like all other required vaccinations for students, I would expect parents would have a clear and relatively simple path to “opt-out.”
Updates to Quarantine & Isolation: The CDC made new recommendations early this week. OHA officials are currently working with the CDC regarding what this means for schools. As soon as we get an update, and have time to interpret it, we will share this information.
Thank you to all the families, students and staff that continue to be flexible, follow protocols, and work hard daily to ensure we can continue to maintain in-person instruction. That remains the goal, every day.
Gary E. Carpenter, Jr.
Superintendent, FRSD
Due to the campus being closed today we have moved all athletics off campus for today.
Wrestling will practice today at Crow High School at 3:45
Girls’ and Boys’ Basketball games have been moved to Harrisburg High School. The game times are:
JV Girls – 4:30 PM
Varsity Girls – 6:00 PM
Varsity Boys – 7:30 PM
Due to the late change one bus will remain at Harrisburg to transport students home if their parents can’t attend. Coaches will be contacting athletes soon and busses will load at Elmira Elementary. Please contact the office at 541-935-8200 if you have any questions.
Fern Ridge Families,
It is important that you are aware of a development in our District involving school safety.
After two threats of violence against Elmira High School that were posted on social media today, Monday January 3rd, I am taking the extraordinary step of cancelling classes at Elmira High School AND Fern Ridge Middle School on Tuesday, January 4th. This is only because investigators are still trying to determine the viability of the threats. We were informed of the threats at approximately 2:15 and 6:30 PM.
Veneta Elementary and Elmira Elementary will remain open on their normal schedules Tuesday. In an abundance of caution law enforcement will be providing an enhanced presence at those sites although there were no threats directed at these schools.
I realize that cancelling classes will be a hardship for many, particularly with such late notice. While it is in my nature to confidently move forward with school, in this particular situation we believe some additional time for law enforcement and the district to investigate will be helpful. This has been an extremely difficult decision, but when it comes to student safety we must – and do – take threats seriously.
The law enforcement investigation could lead to serious disciplinary action including criminal charges regardless of whether the threats were intended to be taken seriously.
The safety and security of all students and staff is our first priority. We commend those who have reported these threats. This week, and always, if you hear or see anything that may indicate a safety issue, please report it right away.
I will provide more relevant information on the investigation if and when it becomes available. When students return to school, and I fully expect that to be on Wednesday, we will be reminding them that words do matter. If anyone has ANY information regarding where these threats may have generated, please contact the school.
Gary Carpenter Jr.
Superintendent
Winter Break is a nice time to relax and recharge the batteries after a long opening stretch of the school year, but we also recognize that students may still need support even when they are away from the building. We would like to offer some resources for students while we are on break. Our counselors Ms. Brittany and Mr. Wirth will be responding to emails over the break. Their email addresses are bmcmillan@fernridge.k12.or.us and cwirth@fernridge.k12.or.us. They will be checking their email periodically throughout the break, and will try to respond in a timely fashion, but will not be available 24/7. Please refer to the resources below if you are experiencing an emergency or are in crisis.
If you are in immediate need of help contact:
YouthLine – 877-968-8491; OregonYouthLine.org; or text teen2teen to 839863
National Suicide Prevention Hotline – 800-273-8255
FRSD Community,
The Fern Ridge School District has become aware today of troubling posts that have been shared widely around the country on the social media platform, TikTok. The posts refer to a threat to school safety for “every school in the United States” on Friday, December 17th. There has been NO threat to our local schools.
The post appears to be part of a national TikTok trend that did not originate in our school district, or even in Oregon. KVAL ran a short story on this topic today, that you can view here: https://kval.com/news/nation-world/schools-across-us-respond-to-vague-shooting-threat-circulating-on-tiktok.
All FRSD staff have been informed of this situation. In addition, I have been in contact with local law enforcement and there may be an increased presence around our schools tomorrow.
Please join the EHS guitar, choir and band classes for their winter concert on Thursday, December 16th at 7:00 PM in the EHS Theater. It will be a great night of fun music!
