On Friday, Oct. 24, the last thing Abdoulaye Soumare, senior, expected to see during second block was a fellow student being taken into police custody.

“Hopkins was having a soft lockdown [at the time of the arrest]. The block ended, but we weren’t allowed to leave the classroom because the school was still in lockdown, so the entire class just sat there looking out the window at the cops,” Soumare said.

Soumare explains that from his classroom, he and his fellow classmates could clearly see the arrest taking place outside on the north side of the building.

“[Students from the Outdoor Adventures class] were getting their phones checked and another student was getting his jacket checked. [The student getting his jacket checked] dumped his stuff out of his bag and everything stopped for a minute. Another squad car pulled up and they threw the cuffs on him,” Soumare said.

Not only was Soumare able to witness the arrest firsthand, but he managed to capture the whole incident on Vine, a short-form video-sharing social media network. The Vine was then posted to Soumare’s Twitter account, which received 53 retweets and 152 favorites as of Nov. 24. On Vine, the video itself received 3,936 loops as of Nov. 24.

“When I tweeted the Vine, within five minutes I already had about 30 favorites and 14 retweets. It was really cool and totally crazy to [break the media] to the entire school, but I kept sitting there thinking wow, there’s a student getting arrested. For the rest of the day, people kept coming up to me asking me what happened,” Soumare said.

Mr. Jeff Sebenaler, Minnetonka Police Department’s Chief of Police, described an official account of the incident that occurred on the morning of Friday, Oct. 24.

“[The Minnetonka Police Department] responded to a bomb threat at the high school while we were there doing a parking lot search for narcotics with our dogs. During [the search] we followed up on the bomb threat, and a student was identified and taken into custody,” Sebenaler said.

A few hours after the soft lockdown occurred, the administrative staff released a statement to HHS parents regarding the day’s events. The email that was sent to parents did not mention the arrest or the bomb threat.

Ms. Jolene Goldade, district communications and PR coordinator, explains that when the district sends out emails to students and their families, they have to be aware of the Student Data Privacy Act. The act provides restrictions on what data contained in a student’s educational record can be disclosed and to whom it may be disclosed.

“[The school district] cannot provide any information that could identify a student, so if a bunch of students were to see an arrest, post it, or tweet it, we could not communicate it because that would implicate the student,” Goldade said. “When students [post on social media] about a sensitive topic, it actually limits our ability to communicate.”

Some students and parents expressed their frustration at the lack of details included in the email. Troy Bassett, senior, who witnessed the incident taking place, believes that the school should provide more details to the HHS community regarding police matters.

“Most kids at school already knew about [the student] being arrested because of Twitter and Snapchat. Their parents and friends knew because that media [is public],” Bassett said. “I think that [students] should be informed about what happens, even if it’s [someone’s] personal business.”

Ms. Patty Johnson, principal, and Goldade both explain that the school’s responsibility to adhere to the Student Data Privacy Law, along with varying situations that occur on school grounds, sometimes limit the amount of information that is communicated.

“Sometimes it may seem that [Hopkins] is more conservative in the information it puts out than at other times. That’s because it is very situational. In every situation it depends on how we need to follow the law, and it also depends on the wishes of those involved,” Johnson said.

“It’s frustrating for us and it’s frustrating for parents because [the intricacies of the law] really limit our ability to communicate as transparently as some people hope we might be able to. Our hands are tied, which is sometimes perceived as a lack of communication, but those are the rules we have to adhere by,” Goldade said.

In some classes, students who saw Soumare’s Vine were informed of the arrest before some teachers and school administrators. Goldade describes that the Hopkins, along with other school districts, actually uses social media sites as a resource.

“In the past, we used to clip all the news stories that [Hopkins schools] were involved in. Now, it’s gotten to a point where we have to monitor Twitter and Facebook to see what is being posted about us,” Goldade said.