The investigation is still ongoing for the suspect of a threat of violence made to the school on Canvas Wednesday, Jan. 8. Early that morning, Principal Randy Cobb was notified of the post and immediately was joined by the police department to gather information on the person of interest. 

“We immediately started to try to locate who the person of interest was,” Cobb said. “We wanted to make sure that whoever posted this was not able to blend in with the school.”

Wednesday morning, there was extra security on campus to observe and ensure the safety of the school. Parents of students were notified of this through an email sent by assistant superintendent Todd Smith and teachers were notified by Cobb through a separate email. Both emails were meant not just to inform but also to reassure.

“School safety is a top priority,” Cobb and Smith said.

Cobb stated that the team investigating felt they knew who the suspect was, which is why there was no formal announcement and the situation was kept quiet.

Students quickly became aware of the situation and spread it around through social media. Despite many students believing they knew who the threat came from, no one was really worried.

“As soon as I got to school I could hear everyone and their groups talking about it,” senior Pierce Loeffelholz said.

Some students such as junior Brooke Hitt were completely unphased by the threat, she states that she believed it was a joke and didn’t take it very seriously.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Hitt said.

The majority of students were unaware of the extra police presence around the school. Authorities arrested the person of interest off campus. Because the investigation is still ongoing and nothing is officially confirmed, not all information has been made public yet.

“Our local police department should be really praised and congratulated on the great work that they did,” Cobb said.

Students and teachers of the school have now mostly moved on from this event although it does bring attention to the darker happenings around the world. It’s comforting to know that our school was able to handle the situation quietly without putting anyone in danger.

“It made me feel a little sad, I feel like high school students are okay with making those kinds of jokes even after the events that have been happening in this country recently,” Loeffelholz said. “They know they’re going to get attention from it and that’s why they’re going to do it.”