By CAT SANDOVAL
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Hundreds of students in the Hamilton Heights district in northern Hamilton County did not show up to school after a shooting threat this week.
The district’s superintendent, Derek Arrowood, says the shooting threat was made Monday night on Snapchat.
On Tuesday, 450 students were absent.
On Wednesday, 600 students didn’t show.
On Thursday, the district saw 95 percent attendance, which is closer to its usual numbers.
The school district has about 2,300 kids in elementary, middle school, and high school.
Arrowood
Arrowood said, “Those who are missing school – they get to make up that work, but they might be missing a lecture. They might be missing knowledge that might not be repeated later in the year whether they’re in first grade or 12th grade, and that’s a challenge.”
The superintendent says someone outside the school district hacked a student’s Snapchat account and posted that a school was going to get “shot up.” The post included a photo of a singer named Ethel Cain.
The district reported the threat to police, but no results of any investigation have been announced.
The school district didn’t find the threat credible.
Arrowood says the same threat was going around different school districts in central Indiana with the same photo. But, Arrowood was sure, the threat wasn’t coming from any student in his district. Despite that information, Arrowood says, hundreds of parents pulled their students from school, and he doesn’t blame them.
“I want to make clear that I’m not judging parents by not sending them [their children] to school,” Arrowood said. “I want them to know we believe schools are safe otherwise we wouldn’t be having school.”
He says, as a parent with kids who went to these very schools, he understands the worry parents feel. But, he adds, the school district is taking every precaution it can. Each school building has one main entrance for visitors, and they must have passes or visitor passes to enter.
All three student entrances at each building have adult supervisors watching.
“We do not have metal detectors, but we do have people observing them and we know our kids,” Arrowood said.
He says the district works with police to ensure each educational facility every school day has an officer.
Hamilton Heights High School is shown Sept. 19, 2024, near Arcadia. (Photo by WISH-TV)
An anonymous app and tip resource helped the district. The superintendent says the app was how it found out about Monday’s threat.
Parent Cole Harber kept his high school daughter in classes because he felt it was safe.
“Me and my wife talked about it and saw the Snapchat screenshots, and we saw this as the same photo in different schools so we felt secure that it was a prank or something like that,” Harber said. “We felt it was safe.”
He says, as a parent, he wants to recommend metal detectors to the district.
“I remember when my daughter was in kindergarten, we were buying bulletproof backpacks,” Harber said. “It’s not a fun feeling to have that worry.”
His daughter Kyrsten Harber said of the school atmosphere, “Yeah, there’s a lot of cops everywhere. I feel safe.”
At the end of the day, Arrowood says, student safety is important every school day and not just on the days with threats.
“It’s the parent’s responsibility to send their kids to schools,” he said. “It’s the parent’s responsibility to not send their kids to school. But, learning is going to take place if we think it’s safe in our buildings.”
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/i-team-8/hundreds-of-hamilton-heights-students-absent-from-school-because-of-shooting-threat.