Task force formed to address threats to school districts

With the increased number of threats being made to different school districts around the region — including several recently to Cheboygan Area Schools — a task force was created to address school safety issues.

The heads of law enforcement around Cheboygan County — Cheboygan County Sheriff Dale Clarmont, Cheboygan Department of Public Safety Director Kurt Jones, Tuscarora Township Police Chief Gordon Temple and Mackinaw City Police Chief Todd Woods — met earlier this month. The law enforcement officials agreed the best way to address any threats involving the school districts and children of the county was to create the unified task force.

Clarmont presented this task force to the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners at its Dec. 14 meeting, explaining the need and duties of this newly formed task force.

"As you're all aware, we had two school threats to our Cheboygan School district last week," said Clarmont. "I believe we're the only school district, entity, in the nation that not only had two threats, but we arrested two people. One was a juvenile that was a local resident."

Clarmont said the local resident who was arrested is currently being held on some very serious charges in a detention facility. The second threat was made by a Canadian citizen — who lived near the border of Canada and Alaska — and that person was arrested within 24 hours of making the threat to Cheboygan Area Schools.

"We were able to do that because of the quick reactionary force of law enforcement in the school and our Canadian law enforcement partners, to include our prosecutor's office," said Clarmont.

The county commissioners were on board with the creation of the task force and offered funding to be allocated to make sure any necessary equipment — such as laptops and other training — was available to the members of the entity. This funding may be through the American Rescue Plan Act funding the county will be receiving and was estimated to be — at the highest — $10,000.

"I offered up that my department would lead because of the expertise because of one of my soon-to-be lieutenants has," said Clarmont. "He worked in the drug team for five years, undercover, and worked with the state police analysts. Because of his experience, we were able to do get both people and hold them accountable for these threats to the schools."

Cheboygan County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Andrew LaLonde, who will soon be promoted to lieutenant, will be the head of the task force in the county. He will also be responsible for helping with the training of the members of the newly formed entity. This training will begin in January.

The task force will handle any issues for all school districts throughout the entire county, including Inland Lakes Schools, Wolverine Community Schools, Cheboygan Area Schools and Compass Academy at the Inverness Academy building. Mackinaw City Public Schools is located in Emmet County, but Mackinaw City Police Department will still be participating in the task force.

"I think this task force is going to be great for the Cheboygan County school district," said Woods. "You are going to have experienced officers from different agencies using their training and working as a team to solve these threats and prosecuting these individuals to the full extent of the law."

Woods said he thinks the unified task force and the school districts are going to do well and continue to keep the kids safe.

During a meeting on Dec. 9 with the superintendents from each of these school districts — along with other city and school administrators, the county prosecutor and law enforcement — Clarmont explained that in light of the recent threats to local districts, all the law enforcement agencies did an excellent job with the investigations and arrests of those responsible.

In order to streamline the investigation process and delegate the work detail, the law enforcement throughout the county will continue to work together on the matter, but will be acting as one single unit.

Whenever a law enforcement agency is made aware of a threat, the task force members will come together. The agency in which the threat happened will take the lead on the investigation, with the help of the other members.

"I think the task force will come in handy as an aid to each agency involved, as each agency will be able to assist the one who has the original reported threat," said Jones. "Many hands make light work."

Jones said he hopes the new task force will help cut down — if not cut out — the internet threats, not only to the school district, but to area businesses and citizens as well.

Each law enforcement agency around the county will have at least one officer to be a part of the task force, to investigate any threats made to their district. Each of these officers will receive special training to handle these situations and they will be given the equipment they need to complete their investigations.

Jones said the Cheboygan Department of Public Safety will possibly be training two officers for this task force who work on opposite shifts, to allow there to be an officer available at all times.

These officers will also be the points of contact for each law enforcement agency when it comes to school issues, and act as public information officers whenever information needs to be put out to the public.

All county school district superintendents and administrators were in support of the task force and agreed it was necessary to help keep the students and schools safe. Each district expressed willingness to work together with the task force to help protect the children of the community.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Task force formed to address threats to school districts