A Frankfort High School student has been suspended from school and is awaiting an expulsion hearing following an alleged threatening incident at the high school on Thursday.
“We have zero tolerance anytime something like this happens,” said Community Schools of Frankfort Superintendent Don DeWeese. “We will get after this with all the resources we have available because we are serious about keeping our students and our staff safe here at Frankfort.”
DeWeese said the high school office and administration received a phone call Thursday morning from someone just stating they had seen something disturbing on a social media post.
“One of our assistant principals began investigating online and was able to find what she thought was the photograph in question,” said DeWeese. “That photograph was of one of our high school students getting ready for school and in the background on the bed was what appeared to be a rifle.”
DeWeese said school and police officers began looking for the individual. However, because of finals being held at the trimester, the student was not in the high school. He was in the old school administration building across the street taking a test.
DeWeese said the student was removed from class and searched. Nothing was found. The student’s parent was then contacted. She was apprised of what was going on and she allowed her home to be searched. That “rifle” was found and was found to be a BB gun. DeWeese said the mother asked the “rifle” to be removed and it was.
DeWeese added the student has a younger sibling at the high school. He was also questioned and searched with nothing found.
“We came to the decision that there was no intent to harm anyone,” said DeWeese. “But this is the world that we live in.”
Frankfort High School Principal Steve Edwards notified the staff that everyone was safe and no one was in danger. He followed that up with a letter, in both English and Spanish, that went home with all students Thursday afternoon.
Edwards said he has received no phone calls from anyone about the incident.
“We had great cooperation from the Frankfort Police Department,” said Edwards. “We have received nothing but positive comments on how the situation was handled. This was resolved with a lot of cooperation.”
DeWeese said the expulsion hearing has not been set as yet. However, he added a school can keep a student suspended for up to 10 days. The name nor the age of the student was not released. School officials would only say the individual “was a male under the age of 18.”
DeWeese said after school and police officials will debrief once this incident has come to a conclusion.
“Right now, everything worked the way it was suppose to,” said DeWeese. “Everyone did what they were supposed to do, the plan was followed and it worked well. All kids are safe and they were never in danger.”