Colfax school district responds to threat posted on social media
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — William C. Yingst Jr., Colfax school district administrator, was not expecting to deal with a school safety incident on Friday, April 19.
At least, not up until 4:30 that morning he was not expecting to deal with a school safety incident, which turned out to be the threat of a school shooting at Colfax High School.
“It was a high stress situation,” Yingst told the Colfax Board of Eduction at the April 22 meeting.
According to a news release from the Menomonie Police Department, at around 11:45 p.m. Thursday, April 18, MPD was alerted to a social media post stating that there would be a school shooting at Colfax High School the next day.
The Menomonie Police Department interviewed the person who posted the threat on social media and subsequently took him into custody.
After Yingst found out about the threat, he activated the school district’s response plan to such an incident, and parents were notified that a threat had a been made.
“Transparency is the key,” Yingst said.
At the April 22 meeting, there was only one school district resident in the audience — the same resident who attends most of the Colfax school board meetings because she is interested in the proceedings of the school board and because she believes it is her civic duty to take an interest and to attend the meetings.
Judging by the empty seats in the audience, Yingst said, that indicated there were not very many upset parents or parents who were still concerned about the incident.
After the threat of a school shooting, you might expect the school board meeting room to be packed to standing room only or that the meeting would be moved to the gymnasium to accommodate a large audience.
Yingst attends meetings of the school safety committee throughout the year.
The committee is made up of local school superintendents and various law enforcement officials to discuss best practices for keeping school buildings safe.
As readers may have noticed, doors into the school building are marked with letters above each door so that if law enforcement must respond to the Colfax school district, officers can easily be directed on which door to use, and the doors are easily identifiable.
Dunn County deputies also periodically do a walk-around at the school district so they can become familiar with the layout of the buildings.
Any time
As you might imagine, any kind of emergency, from the threat of severe weather to an intruder in the building, would activate the school’s response plan.
“It went as well as it could go,” Yingst said, referring to the school district’s response.
“Something like this can be dropped on us at any time,” he said.
After parents had been informed, about 200 students did not come to school on Friday, Yingst said.
The Colfax school district has about 750 students, so parents chose to keep nearly 27 percent of the students out of school that day.
The response to the incident lasted from 4:30 a.m. until late afternoon, Yingst said.
There were many law enforcement officers on site at Colfax High School, and they were present and visible, he said.
Along with several marked law enforcement vehicles, there were two or three unmarked vehicles, Yingst said.
“They were all around the building,” he said.
Notoriety
There were many unfortunate aspects to the situation. The Menomonie Police Department said the person who made the threat wanted the notoriety for doing it, Yingst said.
According to the MPD news release, “Further investigation showed the subject was hoping for media attention from his social media post; therefore, the Menomonie Police Department does not plan to release the subject’s name, and we request that the media refrain from releasing the subject’s name.”
Jaclyn Ackerlund, school board member, has children who attend Colfax High School.
“I did not think twice about sending my kids to school. I felt comfortable with it, and I felt informed,” she said, adding that she appreciated the transparency.
The post stayed up on Facebook until well into the morning, Yingst noted.
The Menomonie Police Department does not have the authority to remove the post, so it was up to the individual to remove the post, he said.
Parents kept seeing the post, so that contributed to making the situation a bit worse, Yingst said.
“A lot goes on behind the scenes,” he said.
Ken Neuburg, who was presiding over the school board meeting in the absence of Todd Kragness, school board president, thanked Yingst for “keeping the school board in the loop.”
“You never know when it can happen. It could be at any time,” Yingst said.
The individual has been charged with making terrorist threats, “so it is not a slap on the wrist,” he said.
The person responsible for the Facebook post has been charged with one felony count of making terrorist threats and one misdemeanor count of unlawful phone use to threaten harm.
Making terrorist threats is a Class I felony with a possible penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment for up to 3 years and six months.
Unlawful use of a phone to threaten harm is a Class B misdemeanor that carries a possible penalty, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to 90 days in jail.
