A look at Charleroi Area School District's threat assessment team
CHARLEROI, Pa. (KDKA) — The Charleroi Area School District provided KDKA-TV with an exclusive look at its threat assessment team.
The team is made up of school administrators, security, faculty and staff. They focus on keeping the district's 1,400 or so students safe.
"We love them, and we want them to be here every day," Charleroi teacher Marianne Bassi said.
Bassi, an English teacher, said she prays to never see tears on the faces of parents or terror in the eyes of students because of a tragedy.
"To think about it is just awful," she said.
In the first meeting since the tragedy in Nashville and the local school threat hoax calls, team members talked about how technology makes it easier than ever to call in phony threats and got a better understanding of "swatting."
While Charleroi did not receive a hoax call on the same day as several other schools in the area, the district still took precautions.
The word "lockdown" was used during the situation, but in the meeting, all agreed that was not the best wording since it created the idea of a threat that just wasn't there.
As school security evolves, one of this team's goals is to find new ways to address safety concerns without unnecessarily alarming students.
"We want them to feel safe cause they're not going to learn," Charleroi Area School District Business Manager Joseph Gudac said. "If they don't feel safe, they're going to get distracted. They're not going to get the quality of education we want to provide them."
However, if there is a situation, the team agrees getting out timely and correct information is essential, especially since rumors can lead to panic and chaos. But these school leaders said there has to be a balance.
For example, last month when they were investigating the rumor of someone having a gun in their backpack at school, they wanted to let parents know their kids were safe but didn't want to ruin their investigation.
"When things need to be investigated in house, you can't give up all of your information," Bassi said. "It kind of ruins what you're looking into."
Moving forward, this team is committed to making more investments in school safety, including additional security and improved ways to scan backpacks and bags. But the team knows it's a fine line between making schools safer and having them no longer be a welcoming environment.
Pennsylvania school districts have been required to have threat assessment teams since 2019.
