Kingsley Elementary School parents expressed concerns at Monday’s Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board meeting that administrators had underestimated their uneasiness after the discovery of a gun in the girls bathroom at the school Jan. 4.

Parents and staff at Kingsley, 2300 Green Bay Road, said administrators had dismissed parents’ general safety concerns as “hysterical” and were not taking their complaints about crisis management into account.

“Kingsley Elementary faces the possibility of losing families,” said Kingsley teacher Randy Heite.

“They’re on the verge of leaving because they feel they don’t have a voice. They have lost faith,” he said.

The concern arose after parents complained about the school’s response to the incident.

Teachers and parents did not find out about the gun until the next day, which caused many parents to question the district’s actions.

Parents said that when they asked why it took so long for the school to notify them about the incident, they were met with resentment from administrators.

“(Administrators) feel we have dragged our school through the mud,” said parent Brant Rosen.

“We have been made to feel hysterical. It is our responsibility to speak out. We are proposing valid questions that deserve to be asked for the sake of the community,” he said.

D65 Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy responded to complaints and said the school’s crisis management plan currently is being reviewed by police and fire officials.

He also said he has every intention to listen to parents and incorporate any ideas they have into future policies.

“I have apologized about the judgments that were made,” he said. “All I can do is keep

saying that.”

Board member Marianne Kountoures said concerned parents should not be dismissed by administrators since many have shown support for the district in the past.

“I’m concerned when parents are ostracized,” she said. “(Many) parents who question the management are characterized as

unsupportive.”

“It’s unfair … No one should ever vilify those dedicated parents who persistently question management,” she said.

Parents said outcry about the administrators and the incident has created a divide in the community between parents who feel they are being ignored and those who do not think school officials’ actions should be questioned in this case.

“Kingsley parents have been sharply divided and these divisions continue,” parent Deborah Graham said.

“That has done greater damage on Kingsley than the incident,” she added.

Graham, along with other parents and administrators, said she hoped everyone can reconcile their differences and focus on the the real issue: the safety of their children and the need to stick together as a community.

“It’s only by coming together that we will get past what happened at Kingsley,” Graham said.

Reach Kate Ward at [email protected].