MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent Marie Feagins addressed communication issues families have experienced during a Facebook Live on Thursday, Sept. 19, after threats caused district-wide lockdowns.
This follows as schools across the Memphis-area are now dealing with continued reports of threats following lockdowns at Memphis-Shelby County Schools on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
"Across the district, we’ve made about five arrests to ensure that individuals who continue with the threats that are being made on our school understand that we are taking them all seriously, the threats, but we’re also taking the consequences just as seriously," Feagins said during the Facebook Live.
Feagins said the district is overseeing and connecting with several 100,000 individuals at any given time and are working closely with local law enforcement, municipalities, charter leaders and Homeland Security. Investigations are still ongoing.
The superintendent also said they looked at their communication platform Blackboard — now called Finalsite. After reviewing data, Feagins said they found several thousands of families did not receive text message alerts, specifically mentioning that more than 60,000 messages did not reach families.
She said she received comments regarding a lack of communication.
“I do not offer that to you as an excuse," the superintendent said. "I just offer it to you to share with you that I’m grateful when you make your comments and when you reach out to me directly.”
Feagins said they are seeking solutions and are willing to change platforms if a need arises.
ABC24 has reached out to Finalsite spokesperson who said their mass notification system was not the cause of the communication issues.
They went on further to say messages pushed out through mass notifications can only be received if the recipients selected have email addresses or SMS numbers on file. This data is provided to Finalsite by the district, often through student information system data connection.
Finalsite also said they are offering the district assistance in data review to help remedy the missing or outdated information and are also offering assistance with explaining to parents what caused the issues.
Finalsite said that after they reviewed the send report, many recipients had missing or outdated contact information.
The superintendent said she will hold more informal Facebook Lives in the future to better address the community. You can view Feagins' full message below: