BROTHER RICE
V OLUME 59, I SSUE 3
Chieftain
N OVEMEBER 2019
Dress Rehearsal
By Luke Washe
Chieftain Staff
On Nov. 1, De La Salle and Regina
High Schools in Warren, Catholic Central
High School in Novi, and University of
Detroit-Jesuit High School in Detroit all
closed. The closings were a response to
a potentially violent and consequential
threat on Oct. 31, specifi cally targeting the
Catholic Central All Saints Day Mass the
next day. Marian, St. Mary’s, and Brother
Rice all followed suit, by suddenly clos-
ing in the middle of the day.
The threat was received in the form
of a video and was shared throughout
social media. It was later discovered that
students from Catholic Central were
involved. According to multiple news
reports, the students were disciplined by
CC, although the punishment was not
specifi ed.
The baffl ing events raised some criti-
cal questions for our community and
our school. It’s always
diffi cult to imagine that a
violent intruder would be
capable of entering your
world at any moment.
However, Brother Rice
has shown over the past
Mr. Okuniewski few school years, through
drills and in-class instruction, the impor-
tance of preparing to handle situations
like this.
In fact, the Bloomfi eld Township Police
Department has even come in to help the
staff understand strategies and objectives
in times of crisis.
“People say that you rise up to the level
of the situation, but we prefer to say that
you rise up to the level of preparation,”
B R OTHE R R IC E H IG H S C H O O L C H I E F TA I N
Events of Nov. 1 gave us a closer look at school’s safety plan
The school closings captured the attention of news teams like WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit
Principal Okuniewski told the Chieftain.
“The amount of preparation for the stu-
dents and staff may seem like a lot, but
we will continue to everything we can to
create a solution to these types of prob-
lems.”
Brother Rice’s main tools for prepa-
ration follow the “Run. Hide. Fight.”
strategy. This program is endorsed by the
Bloomfi eld Police, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, and the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security. For more
information, go to the FEMA website by
clicking here.
However, is “Run. Hide. Fight.”the
solution to all problems?
Mr. Okuniewski isn’t a believer in
using the term “problems,” because
he said a problem always has a solu-
tion. Instead, he refers to these issues
as “dilemmas.” A dilemma, he said,
is something you have to handle, and
there may never be an easy answer to a
dilemma.
Through preparation and programs
like “Run. Hide. Fight.” we can develop
systems to handle the so-called dilem-
mas in the best way possible. This is
why it is highly important to Brother
See SAFETY, Page 3
SPECIAL FOR THANKSGIVING:
RICE’S ALL-STAR EATING TEAM
SEE PAGE 3
P AGE 1
N O V E M B E R 2019