Shooting threat leads to smaller attendance at Greenland school
Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007
More than half the students at Greenland Middle School missed class on Tuesday after a threatening note was found last week on a bathroom wall.
“ Only about a quarter of them showed up today, ” said Gary Ricker, Greenland police chief. “ The rest were running around town eating candy bars all day. They had excused absences. ”
Ricker said school officials sent notices home to parents on Monday informing them of a threatening message found on a wall in the girls’ bathroom.
“ The message said that there would be a school shooting on 1-30-07, ” he said. “ It appeared on the wall between classes Friday afternoon. ”
School officials informed parents that classes would run as scheduled Tuesday but that all absences would be excused.
“ Basically the parents got to choose whether or not they wanted to send their kids to school today, ” Ricker said.
Students who did attend school Tuesday were searched for weapons upon entering the building.
“ The school was on lockdown all day long, ” Ricker said. “ Students were not allowed to walk between any of the buildings throughout the entire day. Each student was searched and scanned with a metal detector before they could enter the school. ”
Officers from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Fayetteville Police Department reportedly assisted Greenland police in student searches.
“ We didn’t put a lot of faith in (the threat ), but we can’t take chances, ” Ricker said. “ It’s better to be safe than sorry, and that’s why the school decided to take action. ”
Ricker said the threat, which was the first of its kind at the middle school, is being investigated by police.
“ I have a couple of ideas of who did it, but whether we can prove it or not is another story, ” he said. “ We’ve done quite a few interviews. ”
Greenland police reportedly believe the threat was made by a student at the school.
Classes are set to run as scheduled today.
“(Today ) the school won’t be on complete lock-down, but we’ll still be checking the students for weapons, ” Ricker said.
Calls made to David Hudgens, Greenland Middle School principal, were referred to Superintendent Ron Brawner. Those calls were not returned by press time.
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