Mishawaka school officials have announced that a threat to the high school is not credible. The high school was put on e-learning for today after the threat came in. A suspect has since been identified and interviewed.
(You can read more in a letter to the Mishawaka school community below.)
Dear School City of Mishawaka Students and Families,
School City of Mishawaka (SCM) has an important update regarding the threat made to Mishawaka High School (MHS) last evening.
School administrators took this threat to school safety very seriously, followed school safety crisis plans, and conducted an investigation in coordination with the
Mishawaka Police Department and our School Resource Officers. As of last night, we could not determine the credibility of the threat to Mishawaka High School. As such, the decision was made for MHS to have an eLearning day and to keep the school building closed to all students and staff today. Because the threat was isolated to only Mishawaka High School, the decision was made to keep all other SCM schools open.
Working overnight, Mishawaka Police secured a search warrant regarding the social media threat. A suspect was identified and interviewed this morning. The suspect is not a Mishawaka student and does not reside in St. Joseph County. Based upon the findings of the interview and other evidence, Mishawaka Police and SCM administrators have determined the threat to be non-existent as the youth responsible issued the threat without intent nor an actual plan to carry out the threat.
SCM students and staff are our greatest priority, and their safety will always come first when we make our decisions. As a result of the findings of this investigation, all evening activities at MHS will occur as scheduled. Additionally, MHS students and staff will return to in-person learning on Friday, February 26.
School City of Mishawaka would like to thank the Mishawaka Police Department for their work with school administrators during this investigation. SCM is fortunate to have a strong partnership with local law enforcement working to keep our schools safe.