Trussville leaders address school threats

TRUSSVILLE – Trussville City Schools moved to a new building in April, but its presence was still felt in its old location Tuesday.

Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat, speaking at a press conference in the interim city council chambers – formerly the Trussville City Schools Board of Education boardroom – discussed recent safety concerns within the school system after a Hewitt-Trussville High School student was suspended this month after making terroristic threats Sept. 16.

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.”

Rush said the police department was never told about the “death notebook” from 2021 and only learned of it “when the student continued making threats this school year.”

“There were multiple verbal threats about shooting up the school by this same student this year,” Rush said. “These threats are what brought the notebook to our attention by the school.”

According to Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill, a teacher found the notebook in October 2021.

“The student was brought to the counselor’s office and met with the principal and counselor,” Neill said in a statement. “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.”

Neill said Principal Tim Salem and the school resource officer, in light of the events in Uvalde, Texas, implemented “numerous safety protocols for the 2022-23 school year.

“As such, when the events of last week came to light, the potential threat was acted upon immediately and the threat assessment protocol was fully implemented,” Neill said.

Neill, Rush, Salem, city leaders and Board of Education members met Sept. 26 to discuss the situation. 

“Mr. Salem acknowledged this mistake and recognizes the error in not involving the SRO for threat assessment protocol in 2021,” Neill said. “In hindsight, the SRO and central office administration should have been made aware of this book and TV series so the threat assessment protocol could be fully implemented.”

City Councilman Ben Short was at the meeting. He wrote an open letter to the Board of Education, more than 700 words, on his Facebook page. He wrote that it had “become clear that the Trussville City Schools System didn’t notify law enforcement last year when they became aware of death notebook that contained threatened physical harm to other students.”

“Our city provides sworn law enforcement officers in each of our schools to keep our students safe and they are unable to provide the level of security that is required of them when school administration fails to notify or work with the police when situations concerning threatened bodily harm arise,” Short wrote. “Our officers are not there simply for the perception of safety and I feel the school administration and law enforcement need to have constructive dialogue to ensure that everyone is on the same page in handling scenarios involving threats.” 

Short wrote to consider his letter a “formal request for a copy of our system’s policy and procedures related to threats of bodily harm.” In August 2020, the Trussville City Council and Board of Education approved a memorandum of understanding outlining what should happen when any threatening incident happens on school property or a school-sponsored event. In part, the MOU states that SROs “shall be responsible for carrying out all duties and responsibilities of a law enforcement officer and shall remain at all times under the control, through the chain of command, of TPD.”

According to Short, Alabama statute 16-1-24.1 outlines that “the principal shall notify appropriate law enforcement officials when any person violates local board or education policies concerning drugs, alcohol, weapons, physical harm to a person, or threatened physical harm to a person.”

“It is my hope that you will charge your staff with participating in a full review of this situation, ideally conducted by the board in conjunction with an outside party, and remind them of their statutory duty to report these situations,” Short wrote. “Additionally, I’m aware that the criminal investigation, conducted by the Trussville Police Department, is over and the Jefferson County DA’s Office declined to issue a warrant but that cannot be the justification for not reviewing this further. I’m grateful for our TPD investigators and school resource officers and it is my hope that our system can learn from the mistakes that were made and properly address them as we move forward. Simply put, our system must do better. I’m hopeful that each of you, as members of our Board of Education, immediately addresses this issue and provides clear instructions to our superintendent for procedures, expectations, and specific actions for the administration to handle situations like this moving forward.”

At the end of her statement, Neill said the school system is “committed to continuing a safe school environment in all grade levels.” 

“All of our students are safe, every day,” she said. “We are so grateful to have [seven] SROs in [five] schools. In the coming weeks, we will once again review our safety protocols and work with Chief Rush and his officers to make sure all protocols are followed. We understand that parents are concerned, we understand their disappointment and we are committed to improvement. School safety continues to be our 1st priority.”

This story will be updated.