School on lookout for caller of shooting threat
City superintendent plans to re-examine cell phone rules for students
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - The city's school district is looking into who was behind an anonymous threat last week that a gang member from Asbury Park was planning to shoot a Long Branch High School student.

The Dec. 11 call to a California hotline that threatened a potential shooting at the school resulted in a mass of rumors throughout the school district, according to Superintendent of Schools Joseph M. Ferraina.

"I am happy to talk about this," said Ferraina this week. "I can talk about something when nothing ended up happening.

"If something happened then it becomes a real issue, but nothing came of the threat, and now we can learn how to control the rumors a little better.

"I am still looking to find out who made the call," he said, adding, "I have turned it over to the police."

Ferraina learned of the threat on the night of Dec. 11 and said he took proper precautions the following day to protect the students in the school.

"We always have security, every door was covered and we had our cameras running," Ferraina said. "There were police around the perimeter of the school also."

Havoc broke loose and the rumors of a school lockdown and a shooting at the school started after the middle school was evacuated during a planned fire alarm drill, according to Ferraina.

"Kids starting texting other kids and their parents about someone being shot at the school, and then a mother came to pick her child up from school," Ferraina said.

"The mother fainted when she got to the school and we called 911 to come to her aid.

"That is when 10 police cars pulled up at the school and news stations starting calling to see if there was a shooting," he said.

One reason the rumors spread so rampantly is the use of cell phones, according to Ferraina, who said students were using their phones to text message what they heard was going on at the school.

"Students are not supposed to use cell phones during school," Ferraina said. "They are supposed to have their phones off.

"We have to look at our cell phone rule again because the use of the phones is a real issue at the school," he said.

At the end of the day, Ferraina said he was happy that nothing came of the threat.

"Years ago, there used to be bomb threats," he said. "Now there are threats of shootings."

Ferraina said he is also proud of his staff for another incident that occurred at the high school last week when four school employees saved the life of one of his students' parents.

At approximately 6 p.m., a mother went to the high school to watch her son practice for the Christmas show when she collapsed in the hallway of the school, according to the Ferraina.

Four employees of the district responded to the collapsed woman and used a defibrillator to shock the woman. She was suspected of suffering from heart failure, according to Ferraina.

After the employees administered four jolts, the woman regained a normal heart rhythm and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The following four employees responded to the woman: Meredith Miller, the chair of the history department; Thomas Manzo, a retired detective lieutenant from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office who works as a Safe School Environment Specialist; Jonathan Friedman, a technology instructor for the district; and Kelli Gibson, the certified athletic trainer at the high school.

"It is fantastic," Ferraina said. "She is alive today and she was saved by [staff] of the school."