Violence and threats shock Sartell High School

The+definition+of+Sabre+Strong+used+in+the+Sartell+High+School+as+a+mindset.

Hannah Bjelland

The definition of Sabre Strong used in the Sartell High School as a mindset.

Sartell students and parents received an email regarding school safety early morning on October 9th, 2019.

The Sartell High School administration took action to make sure all the hallways during the beginning of the day and all passing times were supervised by various amounts of staff members.

Mr. Peterson, one of the assistant principles of Sartell High School, said “School officials will be visible during student arrival and during passing times as is our normal protocol.” 

School officials will be visible during student arrival and during passing times as is our normal protocol.

— Nicholas Peterson

On Tuesday, October 8th two unrelated fights broke out during the day at Sartell High School. The fights occurred at different times of the day, the first fight broke out between two male seniors, and the second fight was between two male underclassmen.  

“It’s just crazy because I feel things like this just never happen in Sartell, but then it happened twice in one day here,” stated Bella Schmitt after she was asked about her thoughts on the fights.

It’s just crazy because I feel things like this just never happen in Sartell, but then it happened twice in one day here!

— Bella Schmitt

 

Parents later received an email regarding the safety concerns of a possible school-wide threat coming from a student. The email stated that the social media post that students and parents took as a threat was a misunderstanding and was taken care of by the police department the morning before school started on October 9th. They also explained that measures have been taken to deal with the fights that happened during the day to upkeep the safety in the school.

 

We believe the high school is a very safe place. However, we do feel the two fights that happened yesterday are serious and concerning. We are going to be taking appropriate steps as we investigate these situations further.

— Jeff Schwiebert, ISD 748 superintendent

Though this email was sent out to all of the parents, students felt it was wrong to not be personally emailed and informed of the same information.

“I don’t get why only the parents of the students got the email about the school shooting threat and not the students. We are the ones who go here, not them,” stated Emma Gent when she shared her opinion on the notifications we got involving concerns for Sartell’s school safety.