Burlington School administrators say that a threat made against the school this morning was actually the result of a conversation taken out-of-context that spread like wildfire through social media.
Officials became aware of Facebook posts discussing a possible shooting threat against the high school this morning. Burlington Police were called in to help administrators with their investigation. Superintendent Pat Coen says they discovered that no threat actually existed.
“We were able to find that two students were talking, and one student said ‘I can’t believe that people think I look like the kind of person people think would shoot up a school,'” Coen told KBUR. “A person heard this and started engaging in conversations and posts. As this evolved, it changed from being a rumor to being a threat. There was no weapon on campus and we were able to boil it down to the students that were involved.”
He says the administration always takes such threats seriously and the students involved will have “appropriate action” taken against them.
