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Huntley Project High School student suspended after making threat to school

Posted at 4:18 PM, May 03, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-17 14:49:18-04

HUNTLEY- A possible threat made at Huntley Project Schools, had parents sent into a frenzy Thursday night and Friday.

Huntley Project District Superintendent Mark Wandle said the threat was made by a high school student when a comment about “shooting guns at the school” was made in passing to another student.

The high school student has been suspended. District officials said students and staff were never in danger.

The incident took place at around 4:15 p.m. Thursday.

“We had a student report to the principal,” said Wandle.

As soon as the child made the comment, the principal notified the police and their parents and started a discipline procedure said Wandle.

Wandle said by 5:15 Thursday p.m., school officials felt there was no threat and the school was set to stay open on Friday, but with police presence on campus.

“Seeing a police presence is out of the norm here,” said Wandle.

He says that’s when the rumor-mill started with parents fearing the worst, so Wandle took to the district’s Facebook to explain and he says next time, he plans to notify parents earlier.

However, parents said they weren’t adequately notified about the situation at the school and told MTN News that their biggest concern was not being notified earlier about the incident.

“I understand the emotion from parents and not knowing what’s going on with your kid,” said Wandle. “I take that very seriously.”

Now the district is re-examining its policy for notifying and communicating these types of incidents.

“We would notify early and let the community know what’s going on and let them make them make that determination, “he said.

Wandle also said the high school principal is also looking into social media right now to see if there’s a need to visit with other students about the possible threat.