A reported potential threat at the Perry Middle School was thoroughly investigated Thursday by the Perry Police Department and Perry Community School District, according to a statement released Friday morning by PCSD Superintendent Clark Wicks.
“The actual comment I don’t really know, but it was about shooting,” Wicks said. “But there was nothing there. It was no more than, ‘You look like a shooter.’ ‘Well, maybe I am,’ and that was it. It was a verbal threat.”
The Perry Police Department investigated and deemed the reported threat as non-credible, said Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn.
“Yesterday we got called by a concerned parent,” Vaughn said, “because of something that one of her kids had overheard. The officers went out and spoke with that child along with a couple of witnesses, and they also spoke with the subject who reportedly made these comments. After speaking with him, they just didn’t feel there was a credible threat at that time.”
“The Perry Schools are safe,” Wicks said. “All parties were investigated by the Perry Police Department and the Perry schools. Everything is fine, and we’re safe.”
Both Wicks and Vaughn emphasized that the Perry Police Department and Perry Community School District take any reported threat seriously.
“We want to make sure all the kids are safe,” Vaughn said, “and that’s why we investigated it last night. We want to make sure that any reports that do come through, we check them out to make sure the kids are safe at school and in the best learning environment they can be in. We want to make sure that parents are informed of what’s going on and that we’re taking steps to ensure their kids are safe.”
For more information, call the Perry Community School District at 515-465-4656 or the Perry Police Department at 515-465-4636.
Why weren’t the parents informed?
Where was the timely warning? Is that not required after any kind of threat to the school? I think the Perry school system failed. Fortunately, it appears everything turned out okay. This time.