Two New Prague schools close because of security threat

Star Tribune

      A girl rumored to have a gun and a hit list has shut down a middle school and a high school in New Prague, according to school officials.

      New Prague school officials cancelled classes today as police investigate allegations that a 7th-grade student reportedly had made a list of students that she wanted to harm with a gun, according to a statement the school district released on its web site.

      Only the middle school and the high school are affected. The primary and intermediate schools will remain open today.

      In what it called an "emergency message," the district statement continues: "Information has come forward, not substantiated, of possible violence in our schools.

We take the safety of our students very seriously and have chosen to close the middle school and high school on Monday, May 2, to allow law enforcement to do a thorough investigation."

      KSTP-TV reported that superintendent Frankie Poplau called the station Sunday evening to inform it of the closures.

      According to the station, the investigation began Friday, when the parent of a student whose name was on the hit list informed school officials that she would be pulling her daughter from the school. The parent told the station that her daughter came home visibly upset because her name was on the list, the station reported.

      Parents and school officials have been extra wary of security threats in the wake of the mass murder at Red Lake High School in March and other incidents.

      A 14-year-old student at Minnetonka Middle School West in Chanhassen was charged in April with making terroristic threats against classmates over the Internet. The Chanhassen boy was held by Carver County authorities following threats, made the week of March 21-25, that included one of bodily harm to a female student.

      On March 21, 16-year-old gunman, Jeff Weise, shot and killed himself at Red Lake High School after killing nine people, including five students, a teacher and a school security officer. A week later, 16-year-old classmate Louis Jourdain, son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd (Buck) Jourdain Jr., was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. The shooting remains under investigation.

      John Jason McLaughlin, 16, of Cold Spring, is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Aaron Rollins, 17; and Seth Bartell, 14. The charges are in connection with the September 2003 killings at Rocori High School in Cold Spring. Although McLaughlin was only 15 at the time of the shootings, he has been certified to stand trial as an adult.