BELGRADE — Thursday afternoon, Belgrade High School students were put under a shelter-in-place, just a day after police were notified of online threats toward the school.
Wednesday night, Belgrade Police learned of a Snapchat post that was sent out five days prior. The post contained a list of potential school shootings, and Belgrade High was on that list.
The first person to see the post was a youth in the community who does not attend Belgrade Schools. The news spread via word of mouth, and finally got to Belgrade Police through a concerned parent. An investigation is ongoing, and the creator of the Snapchat post is still unknown.
Thursday at around 1 p.m., a staff member saw what appeared to be two students in a vehicle in the high school parking lot playing with a gun. The school immediately went into shelter-in-place. The students in question were searched and the gun turned out to be a toy gun.
According to Belgrade Chief of Police Dustin Lensing, the two students claimed to be pulling a “prank.” The shelter in place ended around 2:30 p.m. Lensing tells me criminal charges may be pending but the investigation is still ongoing.
As for these two incidents? Lensing tells me, “The two incidents were of no relation to each other. Completely coincidental in nature. Both are unfortunate and completely avoidable."
Lensing told me the online threats have no credible information and pose no threat. But Belgrade Police still takes these incidents seriously and increased the police presence at Belgrade High on Thursday.
And if parents are still concerned for their children’s safety? Lensing says, “To parents, I would say we do a very good job of making sure our school is safe. We work very closely with the school district. We try to keep you guys all updated with the most current and factual information that we can."
Eleven officers were on scene during the shelter-in-place, as well as the school resource officers who were already at Belgrade High.
