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School threat prompts crisis procedure study in Ely

Bail revoked for Travis Mattila, 23

Posted 4/16/15

ELY – Last week’s arrest of an Ely man for making terroristic threats to the school has prompted the ISD 696 School Board to study the district’s crisis management policy and emergency …

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School threat prompts crisis procedure study in Ely

Bail revoked for Travis Mattila, 23

Posted

ELY – Last week’s arrest of an Ely man for making terroristic threats to the school has prompted the ISD 696 School Board to study the district’s crisis management policy and emergency procedure handbook.

Travis Mattila, 23, remains behind bars in the St. Louis County Jail after his bail was revoked on a felony charge of making terroristic threats to the Ely School District and President Obama on Facebook. He was arrested April 5.

Near the beginning of a marathon session Monday night, School Board chairman Ray Marsnik informed the dozens of audience members that there would be no discussion about the suspect, threats made or the investigation. “We will leave that to law enforcement,” he said.

The school board talked about the process and how the situation was handled by the administration.

School Director Rochelle Sjoberg asked for the issue to be put on the board agenda. “”There was very much a lack of communication about this issue,” she said. She requested the crisis management protocols currently in place be reviewed by the board, staff, and members of the community.

“This was a very serious event and it should have been treated as such,” Sjoberg said.

One audience member voiced her approval of the communication she received from the school staff regarding the threats.

During the open forum portion of the meeting.Karen Peck said, “Thank you for the communication that was sent out regarding the Facebook threats. I understand there was very limited information that could be sent out but I very much appreciated having some information. It would have been very irresponsible and inappropriate not to inform the general public that the threat had been made.”

Board director Amy Richter noted that the crisis management guide was last updated in 2008. “It is unfortunate that this situation had to bring this to light but I definitely agree that this is a good time for us to revamp our process and policy,” she said.

“I for one was not happy with the way this whole situation was handled,” said Marsnik. “This is a safety issue that required immediate board action. I believe our superintendent should have called an emergency board meeting and at that meeting we would have had our administrators, superintendent, school board, law enforcement and legal counsel present and should have set up a course (of action) that we should have followed.”

Marsnik stressed the importance of having the school district speak with one voice. “That voice should be of the superintendent and that did not happen. Nobody was in charge and the mess was created,” he said.

He said he was also upset that the board was not shown the courtesy of being informed about the situation from Superintendent Alexis Leitgeb.

“The only email I got from Leitgeb said, ‘In case you get phone calls, there were some threats on Facebook. The police have been involved and charges have been filed.’”

After reading the communication, he said he didn’t believe there was too much to be concerned with. “Finally, I got an email copy from our high school principal that she sent to her staff,” he said. “That is how I found out, as the chairman of the board, and I believe that is uncalled for.”

He said one of the qualities of a good superintendent is leadership skills “and these skills were lacking in the handling of this situation. The safety of our students should always come first, even if it means not following the chain of command.”

“The superintendent’s contract specifically says the superintendent shall be on duty during any emergency, whether natural or unnatural,” Marsnik said. “Our emergency procedure handbook says that in crisis situations the superintendent is our district’s spokesperson. That did not happen.”

Marsnik stressed that should a similar situation arise in the future it should be handled in a proper and professional manner.

Richter noted that the current handbook indicates that the building administrator/principal is the one who makes that parent or guardian contact. “If we are going to have that in the contract with the superintendent, we need to make sure that information is put in here. It kind of contradicts itself,” she said.

The board agreed to form a committee to begin the review of the crisis policy and emergency procedure handbook and to work with the community, law enforcement and legal counsel.

Criminal

complaint

The County Attorney’s office and probation department agreed to keep Mattila, 23, in custody because he was already on probation for a disorderly conduct charge. Bail was originally set at $20,000. A mental evaluation was ordered.

In the criminal complaint, the Ely Police Department said they were made aware on April 2 of some posts on Facebook that occurred as far back as Jan. 28 and up until March 25, against the Ely School District and the President of the United States.

On April 3, Mattila and his mother met with Ely Police Officer Sgt. Jason Carslon “because he figured they would be looking for him,” the complaint said.

The complaint says Mattila “came to advise law enforcement he made a Facebook account and wrote a lot of things on there that he learned from books and crime investigation television. He stated he wrote about taking people hostage. He stated he would never do those things. He stated he loves freedom and freedom of speech.”

According to the criminal complaint, the Jan. 28 Facebook post said, “At 2:00 p.m. this afternoon I have a perfectly worked our plan on how to blow up Ely Memorial High School and take a few little children hostage to cause even more unrest and heartache.”

A Jan. 30, 2015, post said, “Anyone who works for the United States of America government is a low life scum of this earth and should be put down like a dog.”

Another post that same day stated, “I murder American government officials, so if there are any unsolved cases of dead governors or kings or queens blame Travis William Mattila … I am guilty.”

A post on Feb. 4, 2015, threatened to shoot the President of the United States. “That one should surely get the cops knocking on my door.” The Feb. 4 post continued, “Going to rape some little girls today around the ages of six to nine years old. I am a child molester. I like little girls I even got one as my wallpaper wat (sic) else do a hafta do to go to jail?”

A March 16, 2015 post said, “Thinking I’m going to kidnap a little boy, tie him up to a wagon … and whip him. I will just whip and whip and whip the little boy and I will laugh in sheer enjoyment of super abundance of happiness.” The complaint said Mattilla stated it was from a Russian philosopher who wrote “Crime and Punishment.” He said he wrote the post.

In the complaint, Mattila said he told Ely police, ”He didn’t believe he was a criminal. He said he read these things in books and was compelled to do this. He said he wasn’t going to do anything illegal.”

The maximum sentence for the charge is five years prison and/or a $10,000 fine.