School shooting rumors worry officials

Keith Paul

Thursday, April 19, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

Rumors of students with hit lists or planning a Columbine-type shooting have been rampant throughout the Las Vegas Valley as the second anniversary of the Colorado school shooting approaches.

Clark County School Police have investigated countless threats at various schools throughout the county as fear and paranoia prompted some parents to decide not to send their children to school on Friday -- the second anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School, where two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and injured 23 others before killing themselves.

Police are taking the threats and rumors seriously. Henderson Police have decided to station SWAT officers in unmarked cars around two schools where there have been threats.

"I would rather be safe than sorry," Henderson Police Chief Michael Mayberry said.

Sheriff Jerry Keller said Metro Police officers aren't going to be on campus, but all cops with a school on their beat will drive by the school more often.

"We believe this is going to just be another day, but we have a heightened awareness," Keller said.

One middle school moved a teacher training day to Friday because of the rumors and because students' fears seemed to be pointing to high absenteeism for the day.

The rumors came in even faster Wednesday after "60 Minutes II," a weekly television news program, ran an hour-long story about the Columbine High School shootings. County school officials called a news conference trying to allay fears of parents and students.

"I'm sending my own daughter to school that day," school Superintendent Carlos Garcia said. "We worry about our children's safety, and there will be a lot of visibility by police. Statistically, schools are still the safest place in America for our children."

But many schools in the county have experienced rumors about a student planning some type of violence.

"We are taking all these threats and rumors of threats very, very seriously," said Elliott Phelps, school police chief. "We look completely into every threat and go over to (the student's) house to make sure they don't have access to weapons."

In some cases when a threat has been made, police found that the parents do own a gun and have it in the house.

"We've asked the parents if they would feel more comfortable if we kept the gun until the end of (the) school (year)," said Sgt. Philip Gervasi of the school police. "The parents have been very cooperative, and the guns are in our evidence vault."

In the past three months about 10 students have been arrested for making threats against other students, teachers or other school employees, said Sgt. Ken Young, a school police spokesman.

Recently a 12-year-old student at Greenspun Middle School was charged after a "hit list" of students was found in one of the girl's books. When questioned by police, the student said the list contained the names of students and school staff whom she wanted to kill.

On Wednesday, school police arrested a 14-year-old B. Mahlon Brown Middle School student after a list of students was found on her computer. The list indicated that she wanted to kill them and make them suffer, Gervasi said.

Administrators at Charles Silvestri Middle School had planned to move a teacher training day because of a scheduling conflict. When rumors of threats began to spread around the school, the officials decided to move the holiday for students to Friday. The decision was made about a month ago.

"We were concerned about absenteeism and just thought it was the smart thing to do," said Chris Erbe, principal of the middle school. "But really when you look around the school, it's just like any other school day."

Recently Erbe has been asking that students write down the rumors that they have heard and give the notes to him. When he determines the validity of the rumor, he writes the students back with the facts.

"That really has helped. It has cut down on the amount of chit chat about the rumors," he said.

The shooting at Columbine has taught school and police officials to take all threats seriously.

Columbine also changed the way police react to shooters in a building. At the Columbine incident, police gathered outside and contained the area. The police were criticized for not going in and perhaps preventing more shootings.

Now area police are trained in what they call "active shooter" procedures. That means that if someone is walking around inside a building firing a weapon, police will go in and confront the person.

"The cops would go in and make sure that he would not be able to take another life," Keller said.

Phelps said "pre-Columbine" police might not have taken a rumor of a threat as seriously. But now all threats are investigated and tracked down to the person who made the threat.

School police are going beyond just finding out who made a threat, delving into why a student made a threat or created a hit list.

"If that student is having problems with being bullied, then we take steps to solve that problem," Phelps said. "Making threats goes beyond just a police problem."

Keller said there is the fear of crime and the reality of crime.

"Could it happen? Yes," Keller said. "Is it highly probable? No. But we are as prepared as we can be."

Students and parents with concerns are urged to talk with school officials and come to school on Friday, Garcia said.

"If parents are concerned, come to school that day and volunteer," he said. "Every single administrator who doesn't work at a site (school) will be at a site (school) Friday."

Despite the rumors, school officials are anticipating a normal day on Friday.

"We intend to do school as usual," said Joe Murphy, C.W. Woodbury Middle School principal. "The rumors have taken on a life of their own."

Some officials believe that the rumors perhaps are being fueled by a desire for a holiday.

"How many more years are kids going to get away with using this as an excuse for not coming to school?" Garcia asked. Sun reporter

Kris Hill contributed to this report.