Today there was a call of an active shooter at Central Dauphin High School made to Pennsylvania State Police. This was not true.
The call created a lot of panic at the school, and for parents of students. State Police say they are investigating "the source of the issue."
The call to the State Police was quite possibly in reaction to the aftermath of a racist social media post from a student. And, then rumors surrounding the fallout from the post.
Today, the principal of Central Dauphin High School made a statement to his students regarding the post.
Principal Miller in his statement to students said, "if we continue on our current path, then we are no better than those in society who offend us."
Many other members of our local media have prominently posted censored versions of the high school students' racist picture.
That's the important thing - a high school student.
Kids make mistakes. Some worse than others.
This is very bad, but we here at FOX43 will not be posting this story in an effort to "gin-up" anger and get more clicks on our website.
We are confident that the parents of the students in the picture know about their actions and are dealing with them. Mob anger via our "power of the press" and social media is not what we want to accomplish at FOX43, especially when a minor makes a mistake and that mistake stays out of the legal system.
We have reported on issues regarding bias.
We reported when a local county commissioner put "Islamaphobic" posts on Facebook.
We reported when a local mayor also posted racist images online.
These issues are very serious for our public officials.
We have been talking about this issue a lot in the newsroom for the past two days.
When a minor makes a mistake, it is not always a newsworthy issue we want to shine a light on in public.
We understand these students have expressed contrition - at least one student even posting an apology online.
We are not in the business of reporting on something when a high school kid makes a mistake, especially an ignorant and stupid mistake. We could do that all day long.
Our story, today, was about a reported threat on a school, and parents concerns about their student's safety.