Edwardsburg Public Schools will be closed Friday due to a threat made on social media.
In a letter sent to parents Thursday night, Superintendent James Knoll said a staff member forwarded district administrators a threatening post they’d seen on social media Thursday evening.
The letter says it was a copy of a message posted at a Lansing-area school district with a further message added.
The district notified law enforcement officials, but due to the timing of the message, they were unable to fully investigate the incident before the start of the school day.
“Threats of any nature are against the District Code of Conduct, and can lead to very serious legal penalties,” Knoll said in the letter. “Threats or threatening behavior have no place in our school or community. The consequences for making threats may be dire.
Edwardsburg is not the only southwest Michigan school district experiencing safety concerns. The threat and school closure come after a deadly shooting at Oxford High School in the Detroit suburbs last week.
Watervliet Public Schools closed last Friday, and Coloma High School entered a “soft lockdown” Thursday as a result of a concerning comment. The Herald-Palladium reports a student was led out of the school in handcuffs and is now in police custody.
The Herald-Palladium also reports that a St. Joseph High School student is facing a felony charge after writing threats in the school bathroom.
“These types of threats are not a joke and are a crime,” Berrien County Prosecutor Steve Pierangeli said in a Dec. 4 release. “If evidence is presented to the Prosecutor's Office that meets the elements of a crime, charges will be filed.”
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo. Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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