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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > October > 30
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Police respond to school threat
Hundreds of parents and guardians have gone to Springfield High School to get their children out of the building following panic over an Internet-based threat of school violence.
Police are working with Springfield High School officials to investigate an Internet-based threat and believed there was no reason to evacuate the school of 1800, district spokeswoman Kim Fish said.
Fish said that the message district officials heard about and reported to the police — which police say was removed by Thursday morning, if it existed — was posted to an Internet site, possibly MySpace, and indicated that anyone who wanted to be safe should leave before 1:30 p.m.
Parents were lined up throughout the lobby trying to get through the process to remove their children for the day.
Students have been text messaging parents about the rumors, prompting many of the parents to go to the school to get their children. It seemed that a “better safe than sorry” mentality had taken hold of most everyone there.
“Any time I hear about any shooting or bomb threat… I take it seriously,” said Debbie Springer, who said she spent more than an hour trying to get her daughter out of the school. “They need to take it very seriously. It’s a cry for help.”
Janita Aikens said she came to the school for her son after he sent her a text message about the rumored threat.
“It was the tone, his tone, that told me he was scared,” she said. “Tomorrow is another day, but today I’m taking my son home where he’s safe.”
Students are not supposed to have or use cell phones at the school, Fish said. Schools have been grappling with how to enforce cell phone policies for years as they have become more common and smaller in size.
Rumors spread rampantly throughout the school over text messages and in conversation, students said.
“I wasn’t scared but I got freaked out because everyone was leaving,” said Freshman David Antonio.
Some students questioned the threat’s credibility.
“I don’t think it’s true,” said Senior Jessica Payton. “There’s been threats before.”
“I don’t know (if the threat was credible) but we’re not going to play around with it,” said Josh Williams, a senior exiting the building.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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