Ferris draws fire in gun incident

Four days after a potentially dangerous gun-carrying student was arrested near his former school – with a teacher as a target and a suicide note at home – some parents and staff members question Spokane Public Schools’ decision to wait a day to release information.

School officials say they thought the danger had passed and still were trying to gather information themselves before informing the public about last week’s events.

Fourteen-year-old Jacob Carr was arrested Thursday with a loaded handgun four blocks from Ferris High School. Although school had been let out, several sports teams still were playing. The district notified the public, students and staff the next day, a delay that has upset some parents and teachers.

Notes were sent home with students Friday, and media were notified by the district around 10:30 a.m. Friday. Some parents were upset they were not informed sooner, while others say the district handled the situation the best it could, given the ongoing investigation

“I expect the whole staff wants more information,” said Emmett Arndt, Spokane Public Schools director of high schools.

There have been many discussions since Thursday among district officials about what information could and should have been released and when, Arndt said.

What complicated the matter was that school officials and Spokane Police believed Carr was in custody Thursday night, when, in fact, he had been released from Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he had been taken for a mental evaluation.

On Friday, Principal Erik Ohlund told his staff during a meeting, and told parents in a note, that Carr was in custody, which he believed to be true.

Carr was taken to the hospital Thursday night and released an hour later, around 8 p.m., said Spokane Police spokesman Dick Cottam.

“We didn’t find out about it until we called Friday morning to find out when he would be released,” Cottam said.

Arndt said his district tried to respect an ongoing police investigation. There was a lot of information school officials learned only from news outlets on Saturday, he said.

For instance, Arndt said he did not know the student had gotten within 6 feet of his targeted teacher, Michelle Klein-Coles.

“There are just some things out of our hands. This is a police matter,” Arndt said.

Adding to the complication are the privacy issues that surround a student’s records, Arndt said.

Only principals and counselors at Ferris and Shadle Park high schools knew details of the Dec. 23 e-mail threats Carr made to English teacher Klein-Coles. Those threats led to Carr’s suspension, Arndt said. After his suspension, Carr was enrolled at Shadle Park because school administrators there agreed to take him in. One student at Shadle Park described him as shy and quiet.

Klein-Coles is on leave and could not be reached for comment. A long-term substitute has been brought in to fill her position, Ohlund said.

Ferris teachers met Monday and will meet again today to talk about general security issues and the timeliness of releasing information, Ohlund said.

“I don’t know how we will recover from this in terms of bringing people together,” Ohlund said.

Ohlund said he’s heard from some parents who’ve had concerns.

Susan Brudnicki, the mother of two Ferris students, called the school to learn more information firsthand. She asked that parents and students be kept informed of any changes in school safety practices.

A number of parents responded to a mass e-mail from The Spokesman-Review asking for their opinions on how the district handled the situation.

Bill Marchioro, whose daughter is a senior at Ferris, said baseball, tennis and soccer teams were on the fields Thursday and unaware of Carr’s actions. Marchioro said school leaders may have made critical errors in their judgment and response.

“With so many kids on the campus, and unaware of the situation, who knows what might have happened if the kid had opened fire in the school and then shot his way off the campus, or took a bullet from police,” Marchioro said. Parents should have been told Thursday night, Marchioro added.

Gayle Bender, whose child will start attending Spokane Public Schools next year, said the school district handled the matter appropriately.

“Since the school believed the student was in custody, there was no reason to rush to notify parents and students of the incident,” Bender said in an e-mail.