Shooting Threat at my School

[MinnesotaSoxFan]

Students report rumors of shooting

 

By Shannon Fiecke / Winona Daily News

 

Police are investigating rumors that a shooting will take place next month at Winona Senior High School. 

 

They are also trying to discover who is behind a number of racial and threatening messages left in the boys bathroom.

 

School staff recently discovered the message "All whites will die on May 12" written in the bathroom, Winona Police Chief Frank Pomeroy said. Last Wednesday, a police report was filed about threatening graffiti.

 

Last week, a female student told administrators she overheard classmates talk of a shooting. However, when the students she named were interviewed, the allegation couldn't be substantiated, high school principal Nancy Wondrasch said.

 

One student the girl cited was absent the day of the supposed discussion, Wondrasch said.

 

On Tuesday morning, two parents called Wondrasch to tell her their children heard a shooting will occur next month. Another parent recently came to the school with a similar report.

 

Wondrasch said she takes the allegations seriously, and school liaison officer Anne Scharmach will interview each student.

 

"We follow through with everything we hear or see," Wondrasch said. "We can't afford not to." 

 

The school asked teachers and custodians to be on heightened alert for suspicious behavior, Wondrasch said, and enter bathrooms and commons areas as often as possible.

 

Wondrasch said no person was named in the bathroom graffiti, which has been directed against blacks and whites.

 

Though their occurrence isn't unusual, the violent and racial messages have escalated since the Red Lake, Minn., school shooting, she said.

 

One recent message referenced Adolf Hitler's April 20 birthday, Pomeroy said.

 

Janitors used to remove graffiti as soon as they spotted it, Wondrasch said, but now each incident is photographed first.

 

Pomeroy said his department will follow every lead it receives.

 

"To parents out there, we're on top of it, the school is on top of it," he said.

 

If police find the culprit, they will ask the county to prosecute, he said. Some threatening messages would be considered felonies, he said.

 

"So whoever is doing these things needs to stop it because they're going to be held accountable if we catch them," he said.

 

If the person making the threats is intent on hurting someone, Wondrasch said the school has procedures in place to deal with the situation.

 

She said outsiders can only enter the school through two entrances, and the district has lock-down and evacuation procedures. Students also performed evacuation drills this year.

 

The school shares a liaison officer with three other sites. WSHS has no metal detectors, no operable security cameras and no exit/entry alarms on locked doors.

 

Thanks to our town newspaper, people now know that we have no operable cameras, nor metal detectors...front door is gaurded with old people in the morning...

[Spod=Ratings]

thats freaky...we had a bomb threat at are school during semester exams this year and wa all evacuated but it was some girls boyfriend that did it because the girl never studied.

[Nokona]

What a great guy...

[southsider2k5]

Is your town a mostly white middle class community, with a small minority representation?

[MinnesotaSoxFan]

Is your town a mostly white middle class community, with a small minority representation?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

i live in minnesota... what do you think?

[southsider2k5]

i live in minnesota... what do you think?

 

Just trying to get the facts together... I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts it is a hoax by a white male.

[MinnesotaSoxFan]

WSHS locked down as caution in wake of threats of violence

 

About 350 students didn't show up to Winona Senior High School on Thursday — the day rumors and a message, scrawled in marker on a boys bathroom wall, warned "all whites will die."    Advertisement   

 

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No violence occurred, but the police and school locked down the facility just in case.

 

"We believe we had to take it seriously, whether we believed it would happen or not," dean of students Kurt Kiekbusch said.

 

For the rest of the nearly 1,400 students who went to school, police officers opened locked doors all day as they came in the main entrance. If students used the restroom during class, they were escorted by adults, and they couldn't gather on the back lawn during breaks.

 

After the school shooting in Red Lake, Minn., administrators said violent and racially motivated graffiti increased at WSHS. Despite an investigation, assistant principal Ben Johnson said there have been no breakthroughs on the source.

 

The high school mailed letters to parents May 4 about the graffiti, discussing the investigation and emergency drills the school performed in the fall and planned again for spring.

 

Connie Kukowski of Winona kept her 15-year-old daughter home Thursday.

 

"I really didn't think it would happen, but in the case that it would, I would never live with myself," she said. 

 

WSHS and police followed rumors of school shootings to their ends, Kiekbusch said, but students denied being part of any alleged threat.

 

He said the school received dozens of phone calls and e-mails from concerned parents in the last few days.

 

"We welcome them," he said.

 

Four girls gathered outside WSHS after school Thursday said many of their friends didn't want to come to school, or their parents wouldn't let them.

 

These girls don't doubt they have classmates capable of carrying out a shooting. But they question whether such a person would publicize their desire or act on it on a day the school was so prepared.

 

"There were enough cops here that I felt safe," Lucy Beiers, 16, said.

 

But cops don't open doors every day. The girls would like the school to get a metal detector. WSHS also lacks operating surveillance cameras, despite security assessments recommending them.

 

Kiekbusch said police and the county's emergency management director advised the school how to improve its emergency drills after the high school practiced an evacuation and lockdown last fall.

 

The school was planning for a partial lockdown today, he said.

 

The dean said students and staff took security measures seriously Thursday without complaint.

 

They aren't alone.

 

Waconia (Minn.) School District has been closed since Wednesday due to threatening messages, and New Prague, Minn. schools closed last week from rumors of violence.

 

With statewide threats increasing since the Red Lake school shooting, Winona Police Chief Frank Pomeroy said law enforcement has to send the message they won't be tolerated.

 

"We got to find a way to get this stuff stopped," he said.

 

Pomeroy said a student making threats could be charged with terrorist threats, but he's spoken with local legislators about attaching a more specific crime and severe penalty to school threats.

 

"It's not something to kid around about," said Dalyla Adank, 15.

 

I didn't go to school today, so I have no clue what went down at school today... I've got Senioritis..It's a very deadly disease.