Threat cancels Moberly High School Homecoming dance
MOBERLY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Moberly High School's Homecoming dance was canceled Saturday because of a threat and a juvenile was taken into custody.
In an email sent to parents, Superintendent Dustin Fanning said a high school student made a specific threat regarding homecoming.
He said authorities were immediately notified and worked with other local agencies to neutralize the threat.
"We refuse to compromise the safety of our students and staff and our district is committed to taking incidents like these seriously," Fanning said.
He also said he can't legally share many details with the public at this point.
"In situations like these, it's hard to balance confidentiality with need-to-know public information," Fanning said.
In a statement, Moberly Police Chief Troy Link said the issue was resolved Saturday morning when the juvenile subject was taken into custody.
The last-minute cancellation also affected businesses in the area.
Jo Sly is a hair stylist at Shear Attractions in Moberly who had already finished a customer's hair.
"It wasn't even five minutes after she left the salon and they sent out an email that they canceled it and she was heartbroken," Sly said.
Sly had four appointments that day and she normally doesn't work Saturday. But she did for homecoming weekend.
Homecoming is also a busy time of year for flower shops.
Velvet Branstetter, owner of Knot As it Seems Flower Shop had 30-40 orders for corsages.
For the first order of corsages, she charged full price. But due the cancellation, she will be making new ones at a discounted price.
"We tried to give the customers a little reduced rate for last week we're holding the flowers in the vase we're gonna refresh the flowers and we are gonna have to do all that work again." Branstetter said.
The homecoming dance has been rescheduled for this Saturday.
Moberly isn't alone in heaving threats or rumors affect homecoming over the past couple of years. In 2021, Hickman High School ended its homecoming dance early because of rumors of someone with a gun. Those rumors were unsubstantiated, district officials said.
