Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. school resource officers responded to threat incidents regarding North and East high schools Tuesday.
Officers found a BB gun among the belongings of a student at Columbus North High School on Tuesday morning, BCSC officials said.
Rumors had circulated at the school Tuesday morning that a student had brought a “gun” to school, according to several parents who notified The Republic.
BCSC school officials said North officials also received this information, and school resource officers immediately responded. The school corporation said in its announcement that North was addressing the situation.
Officers also responded to a potential threat against Columbus East High School.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, BCSC officials notified parents that school resource officers had received a Snapchat screenshot that mentioned “East” and warned people not to be at school.
School officials said they were taking the situation seriously and were investigating the source of the message. “Students and staff are safe and will proceed with their day as normal,” the announcement said.
Additional school resource officers were sent to Columbus East High School as a precaution.
BCSC officials later provided more context about the report, saying that the Snapchat message showed a screenshot of an email. The text over top of the screenshot mentioned East but didn’t specify if it was Columbus East. The email did not appear to be from a BCSC student or staff member, and the teacher named in the email was not from BCSC.
Officials said it’s common to see these kinds of messages on Snapchat that use a directional name, such as East, but don’t give context for the school mentioned, thus creating confusion.
After further investigation into the message, BCSC officials confirmed that the East mentioned is in a neighboring state, and BCSC school resource officers have been in contact with that school. This other school was working through the situation Tuesday as well.
