Many Colene Hoose Elementary School parents are worried about their first grade students’ safety. An older student (4th grade) who, according to the younger first graders, has said he wanted to kill everybody at the school.
According to Danielle Gudeman her first grade daughter asked her, “Do you think he would try to shoot me Mommy? Gudeman’s then six year old daughter was attending Colene Hoose Elementary School and was referring to an older male student.
What is a fact is that something occurred at the school that was serious enough that it compelled Principal Gina Tenuta to send an email out to all first grade student parents.
In the May 16 email Tenuta said, “I wanted to make you aware of an incident that occurred during recess today.”
“While the children were outside on the playground, a Hoose student exhibited disruptive and inappropriate behavior, said Tenuta. “As a result, the first grade class came inside from recess five minutes early. There was no physical altercation but some students may have been frightened by this disruption.”
“I wanted to share this information so that you were informed and to alleviate any rumors. The safety of our students is of the utmost importance to me and every staff member at Hoose. We will continue to work with our students to support them in any way we can.”
Gudeman, who also serves as a volunteer for many events at the school said her daughter asked if it was true that the older male student tried to grab a gun from the resource officer. The then six-year-old then followed that question to her mother with the “Do you think he would try to shoot me mommy,” question.
Hoose parents spoke at the May 17, 2023 Unit 5 School Board meeting and raised questions regarding these issues. They spoke again at the June 21, 2023 meeting. The Hoose parents are now upset that they received no response from the school board after they raised issues regarding this matter at the May meeting.
Superintendent Kristen Weikle said, “At the last board meeting we had I think like three or four days left in school. So we haven’t been in school for almost a month now. So nothing has occurred really from the May meeting.”
May 24, 2023 was the last full day of school for Unit 5 students.
“You know as a district we never speak to any individual student matters but we are always reviewing our practices, our policies, whether it be the curriculum and instruction, whether it be safety, whether it be communications and so we do take that feedback and evaluate that and make any changes if necessary for the next school year,” said Weikle.
Regarding the older student Weikle said, “We never want to violate a student’s privacy and so we just don’t comment on those matters.”
The older student’s name is being withheld from this publication because he is a minor. At this time it is unclear if the 4th-grade student has been suspended or disciplined.
“In regards to rumors naturally we can’t respond to every single rumor in every single building,” said Weikle. “And so I kind of heard that tonight and that is really not realistic for a district our size.”
Megan Toon, another Hoose school first grade parent said, “At the last meeting multiple parents got up and said ‘we want communication’ that was the underlying theme of everything that everybody here said tonight and there is nothing.”
“And I guarantee that when we go home at night and the next day there will be no communication because that’s what they have proven is that they don’t care to communicate with the parents regardless of what we say or do or how we feel about it,” said Toon.
Another parent, Andrea Gutierrez, said, “I really want improved procedures to make the school safer. And I would like better communications. They don’t talk to us at all. The parents are just totally left out of every situation. So all we have is each other and what our kids tell us.”
According to Weikle, “Anyone that emails me, or emails the principal, one of us has responded.”
