I think there’s been a lot of things happening in the last couple of months in short order, some of them tragic. It shakes our schools, it shakes our community.”

Joseph Amaral, Portsmouth High School principal

PORTSMOUTH — Just a day after dismissing rumors that a student had threatened to “shoot up” Portsmouth High School on Monday of this week, school administrators investigated another report of a gun threat — this time at the middle school.

While school officials have made assurances they’re doing everything they can to keep students safe, many parents are on edge over the most recent developments. They come only six weeks after a former student allegedly assaulted a teacher in the PHS field house and less than a month after a mass school shooting in Florida, creating a perfect storm of anxiety that’s being fueled by social media.

“I think there’s been a lot of things happening in the last couple of months in short order, some of them tragic. It shakes our schools, it shakes our community,” PHS Principal Joseph Amaral said on Monday.

The rumor at the high school was thoroughly investigated by police and was found to be baseless, said Mr. Amaral, who sent out e-mails Sunday evening in an attempt to soothe any fears students and parents may have.

The rumor apparently began before February vacation and has been the topic of several posts by members of Concerned Portsmouth Parents, a Facebook page where parents share information about the challenges their children are facing. One parent posted that several students said they were not attending school Monday due to a threat of a shooting made by a classmate.

But there’s no credible evidence to suggest the story had any merit, according to school administrators.

“It was a rumor where there was zero evidence,” said Superintendent Ana Riley. “No one actually made that threat. It was a rumor that got out of control.”

Terri Cortvriend, School Committee chairwoman, said the fake story was particularly unfortunate because it identified a boy by name and potentially served to further “ostracize” him.

“It was brought to the adults’ attention and we want kids to do that, but it was totally unsubstantiated,” Ms. Cortvriend said. “Nobody could actually verify that they actually heard him say that or that they saw a posting that said that.”

Middle school incident

On Monday night, another e-mail went out to parents, this time from Portsmouth Middle School Principal Joao Arruda. He said that earlier that day, a student told a friend in school “that he was going to come to school armed.”

In the e-mail, Mr. Arruda assured parents that administrators had spoken with the students’ parents and that police would be making a “safe visit” to the home of the student who made the remark.

“For whatever reason, the student didn’t share that at the school, but they mentioned it to their parents, who immediately notified the school,” said Ms. Riley, explaining why administrators took no action while school was in session. “Because everything gets out there so quickly, I always ask principals to communicate to the parents as soon as possible.”

The district takes every threat seriously, she said. “No one says something like that just for the heck of it. We really have to support that child and figure out what would lead them to say that,” said Ms. Riley. “Whenever a student mentions a weapon, we worry for their own safety. We always call the police and they do a visit to the home to make sure there aren’t any weapons and everyone’s safe, and to alert the parents.”

In the four years she’s been with the district, Ms. Riley said no weapons have ever been found at a student’s home during one of the police checks. That doesn’t mean it could never happen, she acknowledged.

The district is doing everything in its power to provide a safe learning environment for students, said the superintendent, who pointed to the numerous security upgrades that are being fast-tracked for all the schools. 

(Parents can hear an update about the security upgrades at an advisory meeting starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, in the PHS library.)

“Even before the events of the last month, we were working on this. There’s always room for improvements in terms of safety,” she said.

Ironically, news of all the safety improvements currently going on may actually be increasing parents’ anxiety, Ms. Riley said.

“Sometimes, making (security) improvements makes people afraid,” she said. “If all of these things hadn’t happened to us in the last couple of months, maybe we’d feel differently.”

Social media misinformation

Some comments regarding school security that have been made on social media aren’t helping to ease the tensions, Ms. Riley said. “Social media has the ability to make something of nothing and spread false information,” she said.

Ms. Cortvriend agreed with that assessment and said she’s been troubled by some of the things she’s read on the Concerned Portsmouth Parents page. Some of the posts, she said, have unfairly put school administrators in a bad light.

One post in particular galled her: A parent stated the PHS intruder was allowed to leave with his mother and was not taken into custody. In fact, police took the suspect into custody almost immediately after finding him in the main office.

“It was the judge who let him out,” said Ms. Cortvriend, referring to the 2nd District Court judge who allowed the suspect’s mother to bring him to Butler Hospital for a court-ordered evaluation.

“There’s a lot of misinformation on it,” she said of the Facebook page.

In a video he posted earlier this week, Scott Sullivan, a former school resource officer at PHS who has a strong presence on the page, cautioned parents about sharing false information.

“Things are going bad, guys, and we are part of the problem,” Mr. Sullivan said into the camera. “‘See something, say something’ has now become, ‘Well, I’m just going to say anything without facts and post it online and create mass hysteria. If you see something and you actually have something, send it to the proper people, and the proper people are not everyone on Facebook or Instagram.”