Social Media School Threat Due To 'Misunderstanding'

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston Police and Evanston Township High School officials say there's nothing to worry about after rumors of a threat to the school spread through the community Thursday night. A screenshot from a social media post "urged students not to attend" ETHS on Friday because of a rumor that a student was "planning to shoot up the school," according to a letter from Superintendent Eric Witherspoon.

Witherspoon said school officials notified the Evanston Police Department immediately when they learned about the rumor. Police said they opened an investigation and interviewed several people after they were notified by the school around 5 p.m.

Late Thursday night, Evanston police said they were "aware of viral threats" at Evanston Township High School and promised extra police presence during the school day Friday.

According to the superintendent's letter, police learned that one student had made statement "which caused concern" for other students, "but no actual plan to bring a gun into the school or 'shoot up the school' ever existed."

ETHS will take actions "as warranted by district policies" against the student who made false statements as well as the student who posted the original screenshot on social media after it caused a "disruption to the school day," Witherspoon said.

Early Friday morning, the department tweeted that the incident was "fully investigated" and determined to be a "misunderstanding."

It appears that the threat was a sarcastic comment in a text message in reference to not wanting to take a test on Friday.

"Something along the lines that you shouldn't go to school anyway because someone is going to shoot up the school," said Evanston police spokesperson Perry Polinski.

The girl that sent the message intended the message as a joke and not to be taken seriously, but the recipient of the text message mentioned it to someone else and the rumor grew and spread from there, Polinski said.

After investigating, police determined the message was just a sarcastic comment between friends about getting out of a test.

Detectives fully investigated the threat rpt at ETHS and it revealed it was a misunderstanding and there was never an actual threat.
— Evanston, IL Police (@EvanstonPD) October 27, 2017

Polinski said the extra patrols have been assigned as a "reassurance" after word of the incident spread through the school. No criminal charges will be filed in connection with the incident.

Witherspoon's letter said there was no safety threat to any ETHS student or staff at any time.

_{Top photo via Patch file}