Oak Harbor Middle School teacher Sue Karahalios’ frightening and frustrating experience last year inspired a bill that unanimously passed the state Senate last week.

The bill, which now moves onto the House of Representatives, mandates that school districts notify staff or students of a threat of violence.

Karahalios testified before the senate committee on education at the request of Sen. Mary Margaret-Haugen (D-Camano). She explained that one of her students, who has a history of behavioral problems, wrote in his state test exam that he wanted to kill her.

Karahalios’ concern was that the school district did not notify her of the threat until about three and a half weeks later when a district staff member nonchalantly mentioned it. The police weren’t even notified until later on.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was floored,” she said. “We had Columbine, we had Santee. Do they not take these things seriously?

“People asked me how we know if a student is serious about a threat. The answer is we don’t know, which is why we need to err on the side of caution.”

Karahalios said she then went through a “long process” of talking to the school district, looking into the student’s history and researching the laws surrounding notification.

She said district officials eventually apologized to her for the oversight. Yet she was surprised to learn that while school districts are mandated to release information about a student’s past history of violence, there are no laws requiring notification of current threats.

Karahalios ended up filing a restraining order against the student after she saw him in front on her house — though she says the student probably doesn’t know where she lives.

Then Karahalios turned to Sen. Haugen. After hearing Karahalios’ story, Haugen drafted a bill which she calls a “soft mandate” for school districts. The measure directs school districts to develop a policy for notifying staff or students of any threats of violence made against them.

“One of the things that happens after one of these horrible incidences at schools,” Haugen said, “is that people say they saw the signs, though they never mentioned anything beforehand.

“This bill is meant to keep the lines of communication open.”

Haugen said she worked hard to get the broad support of the education community for the bill. If it becomes law, the School Safety Council will create model language which districts can adopt if they don’t want to develop their own policy.

In Oak Harbor, Karahalios said she is pleased that the school district has responded to her concerns by putting together a threat task force, which created a document called “proposed policies and procedures on threats, harassment on violence.”

“Now we’re ahead of the curve,” she said.