Rhinelander schools briefly placed on administrative hold Wednesday

Buildings in the Rhinelander school district were briefly placed on what Rhinelander school district superintendent Eric Burke described in an email to parents, obtained by the River News, was an “administrative hold” Wednesday morning.

“I want to inform you about a safety protocol that was put into place in all School District of Rhinelander buildings earlier today,” he wrote in the email. “Out of an abundance of caution, we initiated an Administrative Hold while the Oneida County Sheriff's Department addressed an external situation near our schools.”

Burke explained during an administrative hold, all students and staff “move to their classrooms and doors are closed and locked until further direction is given.”

“This is part of our district's established safety procedures,” he wrote. “The situation in the community was quickly resolved, and at no point were students or staff directly at risk. Once law enforcement confirmed that it was safe to do so, the Administrative Hold was lifted in all schools and the school day continued as normal.”

Oneida County sheriff Grady Hartman emphasized the incident in question, which was near the high school, was “really, really a minor thing.”

“A student had left the school and it didn’t look right,” he said, adding the autistic student wasn’t at fault. “It was reported as a suspicious situation involving a student and it turned out to be a false alarm.”

Hartman said deputies took the “appropriate steps” which included working with the student and getting him back in school. 

“It turns out he’s a borderline, non-verbal type of kid,” he said. “That means he’s got severe autism. You don’t go in and be ‘hands on’ and drag him back to school. You do the de-escalation and talk him through it.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].