03/22/2023
Imagine yourself at work walking by a room and inside is a board with a kill list written on it. Image your name, best friend’s name, sister’s name, mom’s name on it.
Imagine reporting this to the building manager. They do not call security, they do not report it to the employee’s managers, they do not report it to their managers, they do not inform others on the list.
Imagine the building manager deciding the employee who wrote the list is not a threat. They call it just a joke, despite previous threatening behavior.
Imagine allowing this employee to attend a team building outing with you that gives them access to a weapon, without informing the other employees in attendance, or the leaders of the activity.
Imagine this employee making another threat in the lunchroom within a couple weeks of writing the list.
When word gets out and employees and their managers ask questions, imagine the building manager telling different stories to each that ask.
When a meeting finally happens, imagine the building manager only inviting the small team of the employee that made the list vs everyone in the building.
In this meeting imagine an employee asking the building manager why security was not called at the time of the incident. In response the building manager states they called the company attorney instead.
Imagine you find out later that is not true. Security was actually contacted for the first time weeks later by a manager, who just found out what had happened. Security then suggested getting the company attorney involved at that time.
In this meeting, imagine the building manager also stating there was not a company policy to follow and suggests you write one.
Imagine you later find a company policy on the company website that applies to threats. It states to call security and inform employees but the building manager did neither.
Imagine employees and managers reaching out to the company’s executive team and not getting any responses.
Imagine after all of that, being scolded and shamed for sharing your concerns with others verbally and on social media.
Imagine retaliation happening, in subtle ways, in an attempt to upset people to shut them up.
Imagine those responsible carrying on like nothing happened.
Imagine them speaking to other companies about how to keep employees safe.
Imagine them bragging in memos, meetings, on social media about how they care for their employees, always work with security and keep them safe.
Imagine two months later there still has not been any actions communicated or accountability.
It is probably hard to think of something like this happening at your place of employment. If it did you would probably be looking for another job!
Now let’s be real………in most jobs the main players responsible for this would be fired. The ones that partially contributed would be put on a performance action plan and final warning.
Now the frightening part- a very similar scenario happened in our school two months ago and there is still no communication, and no accountability. No one held responsible. They really believe parents are blowing it all out of proportion, believe they are all good and waiting for it to blow over. How is this ok?
We would expect more from a school district because they are responsible for our children!
