Rumors of a threat at Brainerd High School turned out to be unfounded.
The Brainerd School District issued a statement late Thursday night, Dec. 12, via its Facebook page and sent out a mass email to all BHS parents seeking to quell apparent social media rumors of a threat at BHS.
On Friday, Brainerd Police Lt. Chad Kleffman said an investigation into the rumors began two days ago, where police interviewed numerous students regarding a potential threat of a student possibly who was going to “shoot up the school.”
“We identified the source and there were no threats made or any crime committed,” Kleffman said. “The threat was unsubstantiated, it was exaggerated.”
Kleffman said the student was not in school Friday.
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Brainerd Schools Superintendent Laine Larson could not identify the student or if the student would be disciplined because the juvenile is protected under Minnesota’s data privacy rules.
“We want to ensure that anytime any kind of threat or serious safety issue comes before us that we take it extremely seriously,” Larson said. “We took this very seriously. ... We wanted to make sure that since it seemed like inaccurate information was coming over social media that people felt comfortable and they knew it was already handled and taken care of.
“We wanted our kids (to know they) could come and our staff could come back to school knowing that they would be entering a safe environment.”
Larson said the school district administration decided to issue the statement late Thursday night to let people know that “everything was taken care of and under control.”
The district’s statement was: "It has come to the District's attention that inaccurate information is being shared via social media regarding a potential threat at Brainerd High School tomorrow, Friday, December 13, 2019," the statement said. "Please be assured that District administration and law enforcement have addressed the issue and concluded there is no threat to safety at Brainerd High School."
