The Iowa City School Board voted on the night of October 13th to amend the threat notification policy following a recent school gun threat. The board also called for a review of existing policies and invited opinions from the community regarding the topic.

Several parents came forward during the meeting expressing concern over West High School’s recent Snapchat threat, which left many unclear whether the threat was verified or not.

Board president, Chris Lynch, has addressed these problems with a new notification rule: all threats, including minor ones, must be reported to ICCSD staff and the Iowa City Police Department whether the threat is confirmed or not.

Since this policy has been put in place, 28 threats from 15 district buildings have been reported. All of these threats were minor, including an incident of a student threatening to punch another student.

“I think it’s a little too extreme, because in a lot of situations, you could not have the right context, you could overhear something and it could be misunderstood,” Ruby Anderson ’19 said.