Dear Goshen Schools families,
Over the past few days, our school community endured two extremely stressful and emotional situations when airdrop messages containing threats of violence were shared to students’ cell phones. Although these two individual threats were both deemed unfounded by local police enforcement, the damage they caused is undeniable.
Our students and employees deserve to feel safe while on school grounds, and a threat to their safety, even when unfounded, is something that district officials and local police take very seriously. On a smaller scale, these threats also ruined many activities and experiences for our students, and that is unacceptable. District officials recognize that events such as these may be traumatic for some students; our counselors are available should any student need support.
Please know that when a student violates the district Code of Conduct, especially in such a grievous manner, they will be held accountable to the greatest extent possible.
District officials are reviewing how we can avoid any future airdrop threats, and we need our families’ support more than ever. We implore our parents and guardians’ partnership in this cause, and have provided resources below that may be used to adjust the settings on your child’s cell phone. We hope that you find them useful.
If you have questions, please contact Dr. Kurtis Kotes at kurtis.kotes@gcsny.org. If you have technical questions, please contact Technology Coordinator Jonathan Redeker at jonathan.redeker@gcsny.org.
Thank you for your patience, cooperation, and solidarity as we work to eliminate these types of disruptions to our educational environment.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kurtis Kotes
Superintendent of Schools
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