It didn’t take long for complaints to arise about the Jamestown Public Schools’ handling of a child with a gun asking for help Monday outside Fletcher Elementary School.

In our opinion, Fletcher Elementary School officials and Jamestown police officers handled the situation as well as can be expected from the first contact with the 12-year-old through the end of the situation. Credit the school employee who was outside and first encountered the student for keeping the situation calm while also dismissing the children under the employee’s care. Credit Amanda Sischo, school principal, for handling the child and making sure children in the Fletcher after school program were safe until police arrived at the scene. And, as anyone who was driving in Brooklyn Square or Forest Avenue Monday afternoon can attest, Jamestown police officers were on the scene quickly.

As for complaints that the district didn’t notify Fletcher parents quickly enough, at some point parents have to trust the school district to handle the situation. Parents in that situation — particularly parents whose children had already left the building — can only add chaos to an already tense situation. Without knowing the full picture, an improperly worded message to parents likely would have made the situation worse. Fletcher staff at the scene needed to be focused on doing their jobs at that moment to make sure the children under their care were safe rather than be focused on minute-by-minute updates through the Talking Points app.

Monday’s situation could have been tragic. It wasn’t. And that’s the most important thing.