MSAD 51 superintendent addresses false alarm that triggered school safety protocols

Jeff Porter, superintendent of MSAD 51, addressed a false alarm that activated the district's safety platform last Friday and briefly triggered response protocols at Greeley High School and Mabel I. Wilson School.

Porter said the incident "was due to a staff member's safety badge inadvertently activating the platform's beacons at both school locations while handling an unrelated matter on campus." He told listeners that, as reports came into the district office and on social media, staff worked to "delineate between what was true and what was not true." Once the district confirmed there was no actual emergency, it sent an initial communication to reassure the school community.

Porter acknowledged an error in that first message: "Unfortunately, our initial message included the wrong date. This was due to a system generated error by which the date of the last message had not been yet cleared. I apologize for any confusion this might have caused." He said the district will treat the incident as an opportunity to review and refine safety protocols.

He also highlighted that the district's system, Syntegix, immediately alerted multiple law enforcement agencies "as it was designed to do," and that agencies were prepared to respond if the situation had been a real emergency. Porter praised students and staff at both schools for following training and procedures, calling that response a "silver lining."

Porter cautioned that no system can guarantee total prevention of a determined attempt to compromise school safety, but he emphasized the district's commitment to continual improvement: "We will never rest when it comes to the safety of our schools. We will use incidences like the one on Friday as an opportunity to bolster our practices." He closed by stressing that safety should support and enhance the district's mission of educating students.

Porter did not provide a timeline for specific changes to the notification system or a complete technical explanation of the error; he said only that the district will reflect on procedures and refine systems as needed. No injuries or confirmed intruders were reported.