‘Death notebook’ saga puts superintendent on leave

News emerged in September that a Hewitt-Trussville High School student was suspended after making terroristic threats, when authorities discovered that he had created a “death notebook” a year earlier, with the names of 37 classmates inside. Since then,Jodie Real and her family’s lives have been turned upside down.

“We are in terror at our house,” said Real, one of dozens who spoke in front of a packed Trussville City Council meeting Sept. 27.

Real’s child’s name was in that notebook.

“Everybody should be able to go to sleep, and we can’t sleep,” she said, before the emotions became too much and she walked away from the microphone.

Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat, speaking the morning of Sept. 27 at a press conference in the city council chambers — formerly the Trussville City Schools Board of Education boardroom — discussed recent safety concerns within Trussville City Schools. During the Trussville Police Department investigation, it was learned that the same student in October 2021 had created a “death notebook” that contained the names of 37 classmates.

“The police department was never notified by [the school] administration last year when the death notebook was found,” said Police Chief Eric Rush. “The death notebook contained the names of 37 fellow students with five of them having specific ways to die. There were multiple verbal threats about shooting up the school by this same student this year. These threats are what brought the notebook to our attention by the school.”

Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill released a statement Sept. 26 but did not speak publicly Sept. 27 at the morning press conference or at the evening city council meeting.

“The student was brought to the counselor’s office and met with the principal and counselor,” Neill said. “The notebook was based on the Netflix series ‘Death Note’ where a person can imagine someone’s death and supernaturally make it happen — for example the person in the notebook might be eaten by ants, hit by a bus, hit by a ladder, drowning, etc. It was determined at that time by the principal and counselor and based on the information available that the notebook was fantasy and no further action was necessary other than confiscate the book and monitor the behavior of the student. The student completed the 2021-22 school year with no further disciplinary problems.”

Late in the afternoon Sept. 27, Hewitt-Trussville High School Principal Tim Salem was placed on administrative leave. Assistant Principal Joy Young was named acting principal. Neill was placed on a 60-day administrative leave three days later at a special-called Board of Education meeting. Neill did not attend.

“We can only hope to improve and make things better,” Board of Education President Kathy Brown said.

Many who spoke called for Neill’s resignation. The next scheduled Board of Education meeting was Oct. 17, after press time. At the Sept. 30 Board of Education meeting, parents and students spoke for more than two hours. Several statements written by anonymous Trussville City Schools teachers were read.

One woman who spoke used 37 seconds of her three minutes to remain silent. The 37 seconds represented each of the students in the “death notebook.” She said it was “a bit awkward, unnerving” expecting to hear something and you hear nothing. The audible gasp from the capacity crowd proved the effectiveness of her allegorical tactic.

“Our children deserve better,” she said.