While officials have declined to discuss thus far the specific nature of a threat made on Snapchat overnight that led to the closing of the schools in Le Roy today, Superintendent Merritt Holley did indicate during a press conference this morning that it was more than just the words used in the Snapchat post that caused concern.
"From my end of it right now, I think because we know what the threat was, we know who the person is, I think from that end, this is exactly -- I'm not going to use the word, there's nothing textbook when you get into these, but I think if you have a situation where we have finality to what we know -- I think that's exactly where you want to be, and I think if we could have gotten that, we think about the time frame of where we're trying to get that information and go," Holley said. "I think closing the school today looks very small in the big scheme of things."
A reporter at the press conference suggested that Holley was saying there was more context to the situation than just what was posted on Snapchat and Holley said, "you can interpret that."
Neither Holley nor Le Roy Police Sgt. Emily McNamara would discuss details about the content of the Snapchat post, nor why police and school officials determined the threat should be taken seriously and considered credible.
The school district was alerted at 5 a.m. by a service set up two years ago to field anonymous tips about safety threats at schools, and Holley said he immediately contacted Le Roy PD. By 8 a.m., the Junior-Senior High School student who made the post had been identified.
Holley said both the student and the student's family are cooperating with the police investigation.
The situation is resolved, both Holley and McNamara said, and school activities return to normal on Saturday.
"This was an isolated incident and I really want to emphasize to the community and to the students at the school that we don't believe that there's any cause for any further concerns or alarm," McNamara said.
She said this is still an open investigation and while charges are possible, it's too soon to say what those charges might be.
As a result of the Snapchat posting, both Wolcott School and Le Roy Junior-Senior HS were closed and all school activities, including tonight's football game in Avon, were canceled.
"This is far from a prank," Holley said. "I think with the investigation going on, I don't want to get specifically into what was said and what was put out, but 'credible' is the key term and with any threat in this day and age that we're in right now, any school district, not only here in Le Roy but across the state, across this country, it's our duty and responsibility to look into every possible situation, and we have to do our due diligence and I think we did that in this in this situation."
