Updated 7 p.m. Dec. 7

Great Falls Public Schools officials said in a Dec. 6 statement that C.M. Russell High administrators and the school resource officers were made aware of a possible threat of violence on Dec. 3 at C.M.R.

The possible threat involved a potential school shooting, according to GFPS, and was investigated throughout the weekend and is continuing with the Great Falls Police Department.

“The administration and police are working with the parent of the reported student, as well as the student. He is currently not in school,” according to GFPS.

GFPD says unfounded threat at GFHS, asks public to rely on official sources

In their statement, GFPS officials said on Dec. 6 that at the end of the school day, “investigators have received one first-hand account, reported after initial information was made available to parents and the public. Upon investigation it was found to not be in reference to the current situation at CMR, but stems from an incident that happened in August. At this point, the investigation has not produced any first-hand or second-hand reports that corroborate this event. Thirty to 40 individual interviews have been conducted with no confirmation that the event happened.”

School opened as normal on Dec. 6 though GFPD had an increased presence in an abundance of caution, according to officials.

GFPS addresses process for threat investigations

“While the investigation continues, CMR Administration and GFPD are reasonably certain that this event was exacerbated by rumors. Two students have admitted to spreading false and malicious rumors and are receiving consequences,” according to GFPS.

On Dec. 5, the district said it had been made aware of the threat and investigated through the weekend.

Two students charged in connection with Oct. 5 incident at East Middle School

“The result of the investigation proved the threat of violence to be unfounded, stemming from second-hand rumors,” the district said.

GFPD searching for person of interest in school bomb threat [2020]

In a Dec. 7 interview with The Electric, GFPS Superintendent Tom Moore said that the district did follow it’s process and policies regarding investigations of any potential threat and that it’s not their practice to cause unnecessary public panic by notifying parents or the public with no evidence of a credible threat. 

“You get information all day, every day in middle and high schools across America,” Moore said. “They threaten constantly” to do harm to one another or bully, or other issues, and officials investigate all of them to discern and ferret out what is legitimate concerns and take action if there’s an immediate threat.

He said that even if it’s speculative in some cases, the district has closed school, as in the case of a threatening note left at Whittier Elementary in the past, since there wasn’t enough time to investigate to ensure there was no public threat before school started for the day. In another incident, the district closed Great Falls High to investigate a bomb threat.

“But if there’s no information, it’s not responsible to release anything,” Moore said. 

He said that GFPS administration is meeting with GFPD next week to review their process and how the recent threats at East Middle, GFH and now CMR have been handled, to ensue re they’ve been consistent and if any changes are needed in the present day to deal with social media and the more rapid spread of information, or in this case, misinformation. 

The investigation process is extensive, Moore said, and in the case of the recent CMR issue, it was not a concern to the level that people rumored it to be.

“There were irresponsible social media posts,” Moore said, that hyped up a concern by some over the weekend.

He said that as of Dec. 7, school officials and law enforcement had spoken to more than 40 people and “we cannot substantiate any legitimate concern about an individual who is now dealing with the trauma of being falsely accused and bullied.”

Moore said he spoke with Det. Rob Beall, who oversees the SPOs for the GFPD, who confirmed that they have not deviated from their investigative protocols in the case of reports of any potential threats at schools.

Moore said he was not aware of the threat investigation until Sunday night, nor was Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Heather Hoyer, or Beall, Moore said, because the CMR school administrators and SROs had determined there was no legitimate threat. 

Moore said in the case of any legitimate concern, all of those officials would have been notified immediately.

“So this was perpetrated and speculated by social media rumors,” Moore said, that caused the district to make a Facebook post and send a media release Sunday night. 

Moore said that based on that post, two people commented saying they had what appeared to be new information. Moore said officials contacted those people and also asked the student in question to stay home from school while they investigated Monday, but did ask the student and their parent to meet with officials on Monday. Moore said the student and parent spent the entire day cooperating with investigators.

As a result of the continued investigation, Moore said that a couple of students are being disciplines for bullying, defamation, spreading false information and bullying the student in question.

Moore said that more than 800 students did not come to school Dec. 6 because of the unfounded threat. 

Moore said the student in question is still not in school.

“A freshman who didn’t make a threat has now been vilified and now we have to deal with an emotionally distraught kid who’s being bullied by others because of social media,” Moore said.

He said that he believed the district and GFPD followed standard protocols for investigating threats, but officials are meeting next week to review the handling of the three recent threat incidents this fall and to see if there’s a need to change how information is communicated in those cases.

In November, the district and GFPS investigated a threat of violence at Great Falls High School that was also deemed to be unfounded.

In October, two students at East Middle were charged for disorderly conduct over threats made to each other that were then spread on social media.