Calling the Vineland Public School District from a Blocked Telephone Number

A Message from Stephen Dantinne, Supervisor of Technology, Vineland Public Schools

We have received malicious calls from blocked numbers. In particular, bomb scares and other calls. This has caused evacuations, lost instructional time and police calls which included loss of resources. I believe I do not have to continue this explanation to make the case.

The district decided to install an addition to our system that when it receives a call without a number, it will go to a voice message which states that the call will not be received by the district.

Yes, some parents may not be able to call the district with call blocking on. Our response is to inform the parent/caller to remove the block.

This has also caused some problems with our legitimate vendors as well as vendors wishing to remain annonymous for some reason. In either case, the call will not go through.

I have a few vendors I deal with VERY frequently and I have informed them that their call will not go through until they install a return number identification.

A school district should not be harassed by malicious callers and vendors must be able to realize that fact even though a vendor would not be instituting a malicious call. In this age of increased security for staff and students, some measures must be instituted which are inconvenient.

There is not a valid reason why a vendor or an organization would wish their call to be blocked and I have told any vendors or organizations I deal with that this is the district philosophy.

Please feel free to forward this email to your IT staff to explain our position and ask them to remove their block or non-identification signal.