School will go forward Monday, but with added law enforcement presence

ALDEN — Alden-Conger School was reportedly on lockdown Friday after a threat was found written in a boys’ bathroom at the high school.

School officials sent out an instant alert to parents informing them of the lockdown.

“The kids are all safe,” Superintendent Joe Guanella said Friday afternoon. “There’s no indication that there’s anything here, but we’re not taking any chances.”

Guanella said the threat, which he considered “indirect,” was found on Wednesday. It included a threat with a specific date of March 21, 2011. In the boys’ bathroom by the library, school officials found the date of Nov. 21, 2011, written in the same color and handwriting.

Guanella said the Alden Police Department was immediately called to come to the school, and officials began examining the writing and searching for significance of the 21st. They tried identifying the person by using the unique handwriting, matched against a list of students who were in the hall unsupervised before 9:10 a.m. that morning. At that time, the only connection that could be made was religious in nature that the world was to end on Nov. 21, 2011.

The rest of the day Wednesday and all of Thursday, officials continued to try to track down the person responsible, he said.

On Friday morning, they expanded the search to all of the older students’ handwriting by having teachers check what they had for samples but were unable to find a suspect.

Around the same time, they recognized the significance of the March 21 date, noting its correlation to a school shooting at the Red Lake School in Minnesota.

With that information, officials decided to do a sweep of the building, and the school went into lockdown Friday afternoon.

Guanella said six officers, including some from the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, checked all lockers and gym bags looking for any weapons and checking handwriting; however, they did not find any weapons or handwriting that matched.

Students were kept in their classrooms, and then at the end of the day, he said he brought the ninth- through 12th-graders and then the sixth- through eighth-graders together to share some of the basic information with them.

He encouraged students to talk to an adult if they knew anything about the writing or had any suspicions.

Students were dismissed on schedule.

He said after talking with law enforcement, it was agreed to continue forward with school on Monday.

“We will have processes in place to monitor the school and have a large law enforcement presence,” he added.

There will be a meeting at 7 p.m. Sunday to supply more details of the plan for Monday and the rest of the week. Officials will also be able to answer questions.

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