Police Search Students’ Backpacks Due To Threat

Officer+Chris+Woolery+searches+senior+Bill+Manion%E2%80%99s+backpack+near+the+baseball+lot+entrance+at+8%3A10+a.m.+on+Thursday%2C+February+22%2C+2018.%0A

Ty Russ

Officer Chris Woolery searches senior Bill Manion’s backpack near the baseball lot entrance at 8:10 a.m. on Thursday, February 22, 2018.

By Elise Hintzman and Ty Russ

Upon arrival at SHS this morning, students were thrown for an unexpected loop due to an anonymous threat reported by one of the students found on social media. Principal Greg Posewitz was notified of the threat around 7 a.m. on his way to work.

To ensure the safety of all faculty and students in the building, the administration ordered backpack searches for every student coming into the school. Once word of the threat got out, a majority of students remained at school, but some still felt unsafe and chose to go home around the end of first hour.

Senior Summer Flahaven was one student in particular who left after hearing about the threat during second hour. She said one can never know if it is just a false alarm or the real thing.

“With all the shootings that have happened recently, you never know what could just be a threat or the real thing,” Flahaven said. “It sucks having to worry about the safety of not only yourself but your peers as well.” 

Chad Martineau, parent of Senior Caitlynn Martineau, received a robo-call between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. from the Superior School District concerning the threat. At first he experienced mixed emotions, but knew that the school district along with the help of the Superior Police Department would do the right thing.

“We have to trust the people in the district and at the police department that we put in those positions,” Martineau said.

Martineau is still not convinced that the threat is gone. With current technology the social media post could have come from anywhere.

Shortly after the first robo-call went out, a second call went out explaining that the threat was indeed a false alarm, being tagged back to a computer from Flagstaff, Arizona. Although the threat was false, security of the building is still heightened for the remainder of the day.