Cedar Hill ISD not taking chances on school safety after hoax threats, reschedules sporting events
CEDAR HILL — They're known as "The Best Southwest" towns. DeSoto, Duncanville and Cedar Hill are stacked with state football championships. Stakeholders like Monroe Shelton want those games to be safe.
"It's huge," said Shelton with a wide smile. "I've got grandkids in Cedar Hill and Duncanville schools. So it's amazing. It should be fun."
Now, those "Best Southwest" towns are rescheduling sporting events out of what they're calling "an abundance of caution" and to allow heightened emotions to cool.
"We are 100% in a climate right now that we could not take any chances when it comes to the safety of our school communities," said Tierney Tinnin, Cedar Hill ISD's Chief of Communications & Marketing.
Tinnin says even before the "non-credible" social media messages began circulating targeting area schools, a parent brought school officials there a concern related to a shooting that killed a teenager in Dallas Friday night.
"I won't go into details as to what all that threat included, but it mentioned retaliation towards some of our kids at Cedar Hill High School," said Tinnin. "We wanted to take immediate action to make sure not only our students, but the dedicated educators that work in that building are also safe."
According to Dallas police, a large crowd followed 17-year-old David Washington, a student at Kimball High, to a gas station across the street from DISD's Kincaid stadium. Duncanville had a match-up with South Oak Cliff earlier in the evening. A fight and fatal gunfire followed. A 16-year-old has since been arrested and charged with murder.
So what's the connection to Cedar Hill?
"We found out that some of the students that were at the football game last Friday were some Cedar Hill ISD students," said Tinnin. "But you have to understand, this is a small community. This is southern Dallas County, and so our students go to football games and athletic events all across this area to support teams."
It is unknown if any Cedar Hill students were in the crowd that followed Washington last Friday, but Tinnin said the district police have been working with several police departments.
"What I can tell you is that our police department has been working with the Dallas ISD Police Department ... as well as other police departments throughout this area," Tinnin said. "We want to provide any information that's necessary to support the investigation and hopefully calm the fears and concerns that are already raised in our community."
Tinnin also said the district is always proactive behind the scenes about safety, but they need the public's help, and that's especially true for parents.
"We need our parents to monitor their child's social media. We need our parents to make sure they have those passwords," said Tinnin. "They set those standards. They set those expectations. That is the best way that they can help us. That is the number one way they can help us and the school community to keep their kids safe. Be engaged, be informed, know where your child is, what they're doing and who they're talking to."
