FORTVILLE — A threat of violence posted on social media led to the lockdown of Mt. Vernon schools Friday afternoon, and a student and former student were detained by police.
Maj. Patrick Bratton of the Fortville Police Department said at a news conference Friday evening that police were notified of the threat at about 2:20 p.m.
Jack Parker, Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation superintendent, said a student reported to the Mt. Vernon High School administration “that they had viewed a threat on social media related to an armed assailant.”
Bratton said the threat involved the possibility of an active assailant coming to the school.
Parker said administrators notified the police officer on duty in the school, and the school immediately went on lockdown.
The other three schools in the Fortville complex — Mt. Vernon Middle School, Fortville Elementary School and Mini-Marauder Preschool — were also placed on lockdown, Parker said.
The school corporation continued to follow its crisis plan, Parker continued, as more officers arrived on scene.
Bratton said a Mt. Vernon High School student and former student possibly made the threat. Both were identified and detained, Bratton said. He added the student possibly involved with the threat was absent from school Friday and that the investigation is pending. He declined to release more information about the students because both are juveniles.
“We are interviewing everyone involved, with their parents, to try to figure out where we need to go from here in the investigation,” Bratton said.
Students were released starting at 4:07 p.m., once authorities were satisfied the threat had been dealt with.
Parker said the school corporation kept parents informed through email and voice messages and staged those coming to pick up their children at an area church. Maria Bond, the corporation’s communications director, said five emails and two voice messages went to parents.
Parents responding to the posts on social media thanked school officials for the timely communications.
Parker said it’s important for students to speak up if they see or hearing something.
“We commend the student that brought the threat to the administration’s attention,” Parker said. “This began a series of chain reactions that implemented our crisis plan.”
John Jokantas, director of the county’s 911 center, said 33 law enforcement officers from nine departments responded. The 911 center took very few calls from parents, he added.
“The school kept them informed, which we believe alleviated a lot of those calls,” said Jokantas, who has stressed the importance of keeping 911 operators unencumbered so they can coordinate with first-responders.
Derek Shelton, director of operations for the school corporation, said schools do lockdown drills twice a semester.
In a lockdown, doors are locked, lights are turned off and students and staff are quiet while police and administrators ensure secured areas remain that way, Bratton said.
“It gives the police, administrators a better view of what’s going on in the school and a better handle on where students need to be, staff need to be,” Bratton said.
Derek Shelley, Fortville’s assistant police chief, said law enforcement meets with the school corporation usually on a monthly basis to go over security concerns.
Bratton said police have responded to similar threats at the school in the past.
“We’ve had several threats previously, whether it be bomb threats, whether it be active assailant threats,” Bratton said. “We take them all seriously.”
Police and school officials expressed their appreciation toward everyone involved for the outcome.
“I want to personally thank everyone that participated in today’s events to provide a safe ending to it, to ensure that no one was harmed,” Shelley said.
Parker shared a similar sentiment.
“We are thankful for our strong partnership with local law enforcement, for their fast action,” he said. “Their swift resolution resulted in a positive outcome for all of our students… I also want to thank Mt. Vernon staff members working with their students during the lockdown and those that helped provide leadership.”
Bratton said there would be additional officers at Friday night’s home football game.
“We are just going to have a few additional officers even though we feel like any threat has already been taken care of,” he said. “There’s no current issues, no current problems; we feel like it’s going to be just like any other Friday night football and a very safe environment,” he said.
