Long: Our schools are safe

School officials are focusing on five adults they believe were “knowingly putting out false rumors” feeding a viral Internet scare that kept more than half of Jay County High School students out of school Monday.
“Our schools are safe,” superintendent Tim Long said at Monday’s Jay School Board meeting.
“We have adults and students texting, people putting things out that were not true,” said Long. The five adults in question posted things “that they knew were not accurate,” he said. “And when we find them we’re going to deal with them.”
Rumors of a shoot-out between rival student factions began last week in the wake of a fight between two students at the high school.
Then “the craziness came out.”
“The rumor mill went out of control probably Sunday at 11 o’clock in the morning,” said Long.
By about 8 p.m. Sunday, school officials thought efforts to squelch the rumor had been effective. But it continued to spread overnight.
Jay County Sheriff Ray Newton said this morning there were no problems Monday at the school, and that no weapons were found.
Newton said that county police will continue to have a presence inside and outside Jay County High School for the remainder of the week.
Newton said that he does not believe police will be able to find the original source of the rumored threat.
Attendance at the high school was about 92 percent this morning, Long said. Attendance of 95 percent would be considered normal.
Long cited a story on the website of WANE-TV (Fort Wayne) and a related public forum as a major factor in fueling the spread of the rumor.
Melissa Grimes, whose son was one of those involved in last week’s fight, also blamed the TV station’s Web site.
She praised the administration for its handling of the situation.
“It wasn’t gang-related,” she told the board. “There was no gang. The school has handled this wonderfully. … I apologize that this stuff happened. … These are good kids. My children have no guns.”
Grimes said she contacted WANE-TV twice in connection with the spread of the rumors. “I am very upset with the media today,” she said.
Long complimented Sheriff Ray Newton and his department for their handling of the incident. “He was arm-in-arm with us all the way.”
He added that the incident was more about the Internet and social media than it was about school safety. “It’s not our dad and mom’s world we live in today,” Long said.
Dave Milligan of rural Portland told the board he still has some concerns.
“There are some activities (by students at the high school) that could be interpreted as gang-related,” he said.
“That is on our radar,” responded Long. “We had a meeting on that this afternoon.”
Jay County police also confirmed on Monday they are aware of gang activity in the county.[[In-content Ad]]