Community Message: March 8, 2023

Dear WVCSD Community,

Chester Academy dismissed students earlier today as a result of an investigation into a threatening social media post. Despite the fact that this incident did not directly impact our schools, it illustrates the challenges faced by districts across the nation when dealing with social media posts. Although these incidents are often determined not to be credible threats, they do result in disruptions to our students’ learning, safety concerns, time-consuming investigations and disciplinary consequences for students. Each incident must be taken very seriously. It’s imperative to remind students that the consequences of their online behavior can be serious. As parents, we urge you to support our efforts in maintaining a safe and conducive learning environment for all students.

We appreciate your help in monitoring your child’s online behavior. At the same time, we are committed to ensuring that our students use technology responsibly while at school, and we encourage appropriate use when not in school. We will continue our current efforts tomorrow by reminding all students about internet safety, digital citizenship, and responsible technology usage. By taking proactive measures, we hope to prevent similar events from occurring in our schools.
Please encourage your children to speak up if they see anything concerning while using social media. In many cases, it is students, parents, or staff members who bring potential concerns to our attention and alert law enforcement, since we cannot always access social media posts.

This letter is not intended to cause undue concern. It aims instead to highlight the real-life consequences students face when they make poor choices, as well as how this impacts their families and school community as a whole. It is my hope that this will spark more conversations with your children, preventing these types of incidents from happening in the first place.
By working together, we can create an even safer environment for our children and empower them to use technology in a responsible and positive way.

Sincerely,
Dr. David Leach
Superintendent of Schools