Text message threat creates high school panic – Over 1,000 students miss school or sign out early

Nearly two out of three Warren County High School students either checked out early or chose not to show up for school Friday as the eight-year anniversary of the Columbine massacre was marked with rumors of violence.

According to Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale, students began circulating a text message on their cellphones that claimed people would be killed at WCHS on Friday. Hale said considering today?s atmosphere, such a situation cannot be taken lightly.

?From what the messages said, four students were supposedly going to bring guns to school and kill people,? said Hale. ?We take all perceived threats seriously. At this point all we?re getting is students have received this information. We?re not getting anything more, although I understand why parents are cautious.?

A total of 635 of the high school?s 1,685 students failed to show up for classes Friday, while another 433 checked out early. That accounted for an absence rate of 63 percent at the end of the day.

Hale said school officials haven?t been able to establish a link between the threat and any particular students. The text message doesn?t name anyone specifically.

?If we had some names, now that would be different,? said Hale. ?But all it says is four students.?

Hale said if it is determined who is responsible for starting the threat, that person or persons would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Sheriff Jackie Matheny said that unfortunately such threats are all too common around this time.

?Every year on the Columbine anniversary, we have a similar problem except this year, with the Virginia Tech slayings, it was worse,? said Matheny. ?It started out as rumors and some text messages being sent around and just got bigger as the day went on. I think some students used it to get a day out of school while others were legitimately scared.?

Matheny said law enforcement?s presence at the school was increased and a sweep of the school was made. As for the rumors, Matheny said there were no weapons found, nor were there any hit lists found. No one was arrested for making terrorist threats. Matheny noted investigators did follow up on one rumored threat Thursday.

While he could not reveal specifics of the situation, sources close to the investigation said a 17-year-old, who had some domestic issues with someone at the school, had made angry statements which had circulated but had stopped short of threatening any planned victims. The youth has been sent for counseling but is not charged with any crime, nor was he found in possession of any weapons as rumored.

?We take any threat seriously and we had extra officers at the school in addition to our resource officers,? Matheny said. ?I really hate this for the kids, that they have to be afraid these days to go to school. It should be a pleasant thing going to school. Just a few years ago it was hard for me to fathom having law officers at the school and now we?re talking about putting metal detectors at the doors.?

The incident happened on the eight-year anniversary of the Columbine shootings in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 12 students and a teacher at the school before killing themselves.

There have been around a dozen similar threats of violence at Middle Tennessee schools this past week.