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PARKERSBURG -- Information received from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Wood County Schools shows a bomb threat drill was conducted at Emerson Elementary on Nov. 24, 2023, while students were on holiday break.
The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) requires every school in the state to establish a crisis response team, perform a number of drills throughout the school year, document those drills and turn the results in to the district. The WVDE website identifies the principal as the head of that response team.
Documentation turned in from Emerson Elementary shows a bomb threat drill was conducted on Nov. 24, 2023, while the district calendar shows students were on holiday break during that time.
Assistant Superintendent of Academics and Leadership Justin Hartshorn and Coordinator of Safety and Security Jeremy Bell said it was the school principal's responsibility to fill out and turn in any emergency response forms.
The board voted in early July to accept settlement agreements with former Emerson Elementary Principal Tabatha Efaw and former Parkersburg High School Principal Kenneth DeMoss.
Although Wood County Board of Education President Justin Raber said the settlement agreements are public documents, they were redacted when the FOIA response was received from the district.
Raber said the documents themselves were publicly accessible but part of the details within are very employee-specific meaning some of the information could not be released. He said the documents contained standard language for when an employee departs from their current employer.
In a statement received from DeMoss July 12, DeMoss said he had served eight years with honor and was "deeply humbled to be known as the Principal of PHS." He said in his statement he was "embarking on a new chapter in Ohio."
Attempts to contact Efaw were unsuccessful as the phone number listed for her online was inactive and she could not be found on social media.
Additional FOIA requests from the News and Sentinel have been filed with the district to obtain more information but did not get a response in time for publication.
Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com