Rydell addresses school threat

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 1/22/25

Last week in his report to the Marlboro School Board, Superintendent Mike Rydell offered clarification about activities that took place on January 8 and 9. He said he wanted to dispel any …

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Rydell addresses school threat

Posted
Last week in his report to the Marlboro School Board, Superintendent Mike Rydell offered clarification about activities that took place on January 8 and 9. He said he wanted to dispel any misinformation that has been posted on social media about this matter.  
 
In a letter released to the community, Rydell wrote that, “on Thursday evening a report was made that a Marlboro High School student showed photographs of firearms and reportedly asked about the school’s surveillance cameras to other students.” After an immediate investigation was undertaken, the Marlborough and Town of Newburgh Police Departments, “informed the district that they did not find any evidence of possession or access to firearms.” Rydell added that, “any student that is involved with an investigation regarding a threat will not be in school until Law Enforcement and the School Administration have completed their investigation, and if applicable based on the investigation, the discipline that is determined to be necessary is served.” He noted that all reports of threats, “are taken with the highest level of seriousness by our local Police Department and the District.”
 
At the school board meeting of January 16, Rydell said, “on January 9, unfortunately on the same topic but different circumstances, we were notified relatively late in the evening by the Town of Marlborough Police Department that they were commencing an investigation following their receipt of a possible threat or threatening comments. We were in contact, as the school and district administration along with the Police, throughout that evening and quite late into the night as that investigation continued. I want to point out that once law enforcement is involved the school district is not the lead agency, for obvious reasons, and law enforcement would be the lead agency and communication is thereby restricted as that investigation continues.”
 
Rydell said the next morning he received approval from Law Enforcement to send a letter out to the community to inform them of the incident, “in the interest of being as transparent with the community as possible, thereby reducing the amount of misinformation as possible or that could result.” He acknowledged that some misinformation still followed, “but I just wanted to provide that level of assurance to the community that we will be transparent in any and all instances to the greatest amount possible when it’s a law enforcement investigation. It’s worthwhile to restate that the safety and security of our schools, the students, our valued staff and all involved is our highest priority from the proactive measures that we have in place to our equally comprehensive and ever evolving response protocols maintaining a safe and secure learning environment is clearly paramount...We are very appreciative of the individuals that reported what they knew whether that was a parent or parents, community members or students, they recognized that this was something to be reported or investigated. We often hear in messaging and is often repeated in our schools and classrooms that if you see something, say something and that happened in these instances and it allowed us and law enforcement to act appropriately. So I hope that offers some level of continuity to the events that happened over a span of what took three days for much of it to be investigated.”
 
Rydell did not take sole credit, calling it a team effort by the Administration and the Building Administration that covers all three buildings, “and quite frankly all the difference in the world was our partnership with the Town of Marlborough Police Department from the Chief to the SROs and that the communication could not have been more exceptional.”