Students board a school bus at Wawasee High School after being sent home early. InkFreeNews photo by Scott Morales.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Despite Facebook posts saying there was a gun found in a shoebox in a classroom during this morning’s lockdown at Wawasee High School, no guns or weapons of any type were found during searches, said Dr. Steve Troyer, superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corporation.

Administrators became aware of a specific threat made to the high school on social media site Snapchat when a student stopped Geoff Walmer, principal, in the hallway and showed Walmer the threat on their cellphone. Specific details were in the threat including naming Wawasee High School and referencing a pep rally that had been scheduled at the high school.

Troyer noted there was also a national threat made on social media site TikTok but no specific threats to Wawasee.

“We did not have time to validate the threat, but we couldn’t mess around with it,” Troyer said, so the school was placed in what he termed a soft lockdown mode where teachers lock their doors, keep on teaching and no one is allowed into the building.

A plan was quickly developed and in a little more than one hour the building was cleared after students were sent home for the day on the last school day before the beginning of Christmas break.

The person who made the threat has not yet been identified and an investigation is ongoing, but the specific details in the threat suggest the person could be local.

“I am very thankful for how our staff and our kids responded,” Troyer said, adding it is sometimes not easy for students to report things to administrators.