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Green Forest School District superintendent Matt Summers said Monday that there was no viable threat at the high school on Friday, Jan. 27, although law enforcement presence at the school was increased and about half the school’s students were absent.
In an email to district staff on Friday, Summers said he was made aware, along with high school principal Tim Booth and school resource officer D.J. Harlan, of an Instagram post at approximately 6:40 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26.
“The post was ‘School gonna be so fun tmr,’ ” Summers’ email says. “The problem was the name associated with the post is the same name as a student who was expelled for violence away from school during the summer months. Two students have the same name. One in High School, one currently incarcerated.”
Summers writes that rumors spread quickly, but there was no evidence of any other social media posts.
“Most of the rumors are recycled from events that were checked out and found to be false early in the year,” Summers’ email says. “This is the harm of social media.
“What did we learn thus far? I could have communicated better to school staff. As you know we did not have a viable threat with a name. Only rumors. I am deeply sorry for any inconvenience to you or our students.
“Plans were made and carried out this morning to be as prepared as possible for a potential threat.”
Summers said Monday that he was at the high school on Friday morning. He also confirmed that the school’s attendance was “a little over half” that day.
Among the absent students were several members of the school’s basketball teams, leading Green Forest to postpone games that had been scheduled that night at Bergman. He noted that Friday was students’ first day back in class after a round of winter weather resulted in the school being closed for three days.
“We have a policy that you have to attend school at least half a day and many of our kids could not get there,” Summers said. “And so we did reschedule the game for tonight. Obviously, that’s going to happen either.”
Green Forest schools were closed again Monday after another round of winter precipitation in Carroll County.
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