Warren superintendent: City schools are safe

The superintendent said the schools are safe despite posts on Facebook that led to the canceling of Friday’s football game.

Warren superintendent: Schools are safe

Staff report

warren

The superintendent of Warren City Schools said this afternoon that he wants to reassure the community that the schools are safe after recent threats led him to cancel Friday’s football game.

Michael Notar also explained what played into his decision to cancel the last home game, with Lorain, and he said he would apologize to players, cheerleaders and band members in a meeting at Harding High School on Monday afternoon. He said he understands why some parents, players and people in the community are upset.

The school district was on alert Tuesday because of a post on Facebook Monday night about rumors there would be a shootout at Harding High, he said.

Though police did not think that threat was credible, he left it up to parents whether to send their kids to school.

Attendance was down, but Wednesday and Thursday were normal, he said. Friday began normally, but around noon he received a call from police about a credible threat that there would be violence between adults at the game.

He said he only had a short time to make a decision about what to do, and he thought canceling the game was in the best interest of the 5,000 people expect to attend.

He called the threat that led to the cancellation “an issue that’s outside the school district.”

“The school district seems to be in the center of it all, but there’s no worry about safety,” he said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.