Plainfield threats shorten school's midwinter break
Students at Plainfield Schools will have their upcoming midwinter break cut short after the Indiana Department of Education denied the corporation's waiver request for a day of school missed in December because of online threats.
Sabrina Kapp, director of communications for Plainfield Community Schools, confirmed Tuesday that state officials denied a waiver that would allow the district to continue the school year without making up a day of school missed on Dec. 17.
Violent, rambling Facebook threats that targeted Plainfield High School surfaced the night of Dec. 16. The promises of violence that named a specific student sparked a criminal investigation and led to classes being canceled the following day.
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After classes were canceled, new Facebook posts threatened stores and movie theaters in Plainfield, causing the Shops at Perry Crossing and the movie theater there to be evacuated Dec. 18.
The person making threats was inactive for much of winter break until he or she created a new Facebook account Jan. 2, threatening violence when students returned to school. Since school has been back in session, police have had a stronger presence in the area.
Police have yet to identify a suspect.
Kapp said Tuesday that each year school officials plan for the days that might be missed during the school year, and they are typically related to inclement weather.
"Our superintendent builds a school calendar that includes several vacation days that can be used, if needed, as snow, or in this case, makeup, days," Kapp said in an email. "Those days are spread throughout the second semester and help guard against an extended school year if we were to have an unusually brutal winter.
"In order to meet the state's 180-day requirement, and since we were denied the waiver, we have to use one of the makeup days. Instead of having a four day, mid-winter break this weekend, we will be in school on Friday."
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Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said Tuesday morning that the decision to deny Plainfield's waiver was not one that was made lightly.
"We had a lot of experts that we spoke with regarding that particular situation, and the decision ... was (based on) recommendation of a lot of experts," Ritz said. "That is a large topic that is a lot broader than one school that didn’t have school that day, and we need to make sure that we’ve got a lot of things in place on how we go forward with that."
The Plainfield school calendar indicates that the midwinter break was originally scheduled to give students a long weekend from Feb. 12 to Feb. 15. Students will still have Monday off.
IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.