Three weeks in October: managing widespread fear in a school community during the final days of the Beltway Sniper crisis

School Administrator, June, 2004 by Stewart D. Roberson

The first trials, convictions and sentencings of the two men charged as the infamous "Beltway Snipers" are now part of history. John Allen Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo will face additional capital murder charges in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., for the deaths of 10 men and women and the wounding of a school child and two adults along the 1-95 corridor between Montgomery County, Md., and Hanover County, Va., during a 20-day reign of terror in October 2002.

As a superintendent of a county school system where one of the fatal shootings occurred on Oct. 19, my life, like those of other superintendents nearby, became consumed by 24/7 decision making about immediate school and community security concerns. That decision making, while reliant upon our law enforcement partners, superintendent colleagues and key staff, was scrutinized by constituents and by others across the nation. My role as a community leader could not have been on more vivid display.

At no other time in my career have I seen a community so on edge. This frightful, chilling period exacted a paralysis across this region of seven million people in a fashion never felt before. It was evident that leadership was needed.

The tragic string of senseless shootings shattered whatever sense of normalcy and recovery we had begun to feel just one year after the calculated actions of terrorists inflicted massive death and destruction at the Pentagon in the northern Virginia suburbs on Sept. 11, 2001. The sniper shootings ratcheted our collective anxiety level to a new height. We were never sure who might be lurking in the shadows of locations we all take for granted. Frighteningly, this included our schools.

What follows is a diary of sorts from my perspective as the school superintendent in Hanover County, Va., near Richmond, whose community was the site of one of the last sniper attacks. It is a story pieced together from enduring memories of those tense days, random notes taken during the crisis, my schedule entries, a stack of local news clippings and a compendium of electronic mail received over the three-week crisis period. Certainly my story of the education community's response would be similar to the reflections of my superintendent colleagues throughout the region. They, too, would recount clear and graphic examples of beleaguered children, frightened communities, anxious staff members, frustrated public officials and more.

Suffice it to say that during the last seven days of the trauma, the criminal investigation of the sniper incidents was reaching a crescendo. Unwittingly, but willingly, Richmond-area superintendents found themselves as players in the law enforcement strategy and in the efforts to bring calm to a terrorized population.

My diary begins ...

Saturday, Oct. 19

6 p.m.: My 11-year-old son and I arrive home from a day spent with friends in Charlottesville, Va., witnessing an incredible upset of the University of South Carolina football team by the University of Virginia.

8 p.m.: A shooting occurs outside the Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, in the geographic center of Hanover County and six blocks from the school district headquarters.

10 p.m.: My wife wakes me to begin watching CNN.

10:10 p.m.: With all major highways experiencing another of the now-routine law enforcement dragnets of interstate highways, we call the parents of the friend whom our 16-year-old daughter is visiting and arrange for her to spend the night. News reports begin identifying the shooting as "sniper related."

10:30 p.m.: The dragnet is tying up traffic for tens of thousands of motorists throughout the region, preventing parents from picking up their children from a host of seasonal activities.

10:45 p.m.: The Ashland mayor and a member of our Board of Supervisors call to ask for my help in preparing public comments about what the schools may be able to do.

Midnight: I call my executive assistant David Slonaker and Tony Valentino, the assistant superintendent, to arrange a senior staff meeting at 1 p.m. Sunday. I ask Tony to consult with local law enforcement folks before the meeting.

12:30 a.m.: A reporter for Channel 12, one of our local broadcast affiliates, calls to request that 1 appear live at 7:30 a.m. to address parents about how they may speak to their children about these events.

Sunday, Oct. 20

(Law enforcement personnel find a letter written by the sniper near the crime scene in Ashland telling the police to expect a call at 6 a.m. Because the deadline had passed by the time of the discovery, Chief Charles Moose, the police chief in Montgomery County, Md., who is the public voice of the police investigation, goes on camera later in the day to ask the sniper to contact authorities again.)

1-6 a.m.: Sleep fitfully between moments of being awake to jot down notes about the next day's priorities.

7 a.m.: Leave a message with my school board chair, letting him know of the TV interview and suggesting we may experience a flurry of events today. 1 indicate he may anticipate hearing from my executive assistant on a regular basis.