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Loading...As we have said before, news usually is what happens, but sometimes the news is about what didn’t happen.
Today’s paper has two stories about what didn’t happen. Some of our sources wanted to know why we were writing their story because “nothing happened.”
Yes, that’s the point, nothing — at least nothing that was initially expected — happened.
One story is about the report received by administrators at Clarke Johnsen Junior High on Wednesday morning, March 1, that there might be a student at school with a gun and a possible school shooting in the making. School administrators, in communication with law enforcement, investigated and found there was no gun nor threat to student safety.
In another incident, Tooele City police responded to a call on Thursday, March 2, about two teens in a fight at the city library with one brandishing a weapon, reportedly a gun.
The teen with the alleged weapon took off from the library in the direction of Tooele High School. Out of caution five neighborhood schools used “secure” protocol — students were brought into their classrooms and accounted for, outside doors were locked, situational awareness was heightened and inside classrooms business proceeded as usual. This lasted 15 minutes until the teen was located.
No firearm was located on him. It turned out no firearm was seen or brandished in the library and there was no evidence that a gun was on the Tooele High School campus.
A happy ending to two reports that, to some people, were nothing.
But we think they were something. People, presumably in good faith and with reason, reported what could have been catastrophic events. And people responded and did their job, effectively.
The response of school district and law enforcement officials was quick, appropriate, and measured — the result of preparedness and training. Although the investigations found there was no gun or shooter, the process worked — and that is something.
