Column: Terrible Bend shooting led to difficult decision to wait

“It is not acceptable for parents to wait at Reunification for hours to be told their student was injured (or is perfectly safe but delayed because law enforcement is interviewing them).” That’s a quote from a version of the manual Bend-La Pine Schools uses to guide how to reunify parents and their children after an incident at a school. Some parents of children at the Oct. 15 Bend school shooting did have to wait for many hours at Journey Church to know that their children were safe. The district made the decision to wait to tell them. Parents have every right to be angry, upset or frustrated about that decision. It is hard to say the district got it wrong. Scott Bojanowski, the district’s director of safety, said at Tuesday’s school board meeting he went back and forth in his head about making an announcement to those waiting: “’Everybody that’s here, you are going home with your child tonight.’ I decided not to do that.” There’s an understandable reason why.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.