Blair Oaks placed on ‘soft lockdown’ after alleged threat; suspect identified, superintendent says
WARDSVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)
Blair Oaks’ campus was placed on a “soft lockdown” on Tuesday after an alleged threat was made toward the school, an email from Superintendent Ben Meldrum says.
“Based on a recommendation from the Cole County Sheriff's Department we placed our entire Blair Oaks Campus on a soft lockdown. Our school SRO (school resource officer) was made aware of an alleged threat made towards the school. The soft lockdown was in effect for a short amount of time until the alleged suspect was identified and located by law enforcement,” an email to parents says. “Local law enforcement is conducting a thorough investigation into the alleged incident.”
ABC 17 News reached out to the Cole County Sheriff’s Office.
Several reports of possible threats at schools have occurred all around the country within the past week. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education wrote in a Tuesday newsletter that “Courage2Report (C2R) and the Missouri Highway Patrol have been made aware of multiple generalized school shooting threats circulating the country on social media platforms. There has been a marked increase of reports to C2R in the days since the school shooting took place in Georgia on September 4.”
The Macon Police Department wrote on its social media on Tuesday that it received a call about a potential threat to Macon Public Schools, but determined there was no actual threat.
Marshall Public Schools also wrote on its social media Tuesday that Marshall High School went into a soft lockdown after becoming aware of another social media threat. According to the post, police confirmed the the threat did not come from Marshall.
The district said it's unsure if the post was meant for Marshall High School, due to the threat specifying it was to "MHS." However, out of caution the school went into a soft lockdown where no one was allowed in or out of the building.
The district also notified all other building administrators to use caution with visitors but not to go on lockdown, the post states.
The post states that work-release high school students and those with appointments left with police and a school-resource-officer escort at 1:20 p.m. The district went into a “lighter” lockdown during the seventh hour, the post says. Parents were able to pick up their children with police and SRO supervision, the post says. Police were concentrated at the high school during release time, the post says.
On Friday, Columbia Public Schools wrote in an email to parents that social media posts about possible threats were unsubstantiated.
Ashland police arrested a student on suspicion of fourth-degree assault after a verbal threat was made to Southern Boone Middle School. Another youth was arrested on Friday for similar allegations. The Ashland Police Department wrote on its social media on Tuesday that the two students did not have any connection to each other. Classes were not held on Tuesday.
