- Jackson Public Schools confirm receiving threats to Parkside Middle School and Jackson High School Friday
- School officials canceled classes at Parkside following the initial threat
- District is working with Jackson Police to determine whether threats were credible and to identify a suspect, says Superintendent Jeff Beal
Friday morning, parents and students were about to start their day when a message came from Jackson Public Schools about a "credible threat" to Parkside Middle School.
A parent of a Jackson Public School student shared a screenshot of the message with me:
Classes at Parkside were canceled for the remainder of the day.
Jackson Police say the threat was sent in an email at 6:40 a.m. to multiple employees of Jackson Public Schools (JPS).
Busses full of students were diverted as police began an investigation.
The Parkside campus was eerily quiet as I passed by mid-morning — empty parking lots, doors shuttered.
Later in the morning, Jackson High School and other schools were going into "secure mode" — the official term for a lockdown — after school leaders confirmed another threat was received at Jackson High School. When I got to Jackson High School around 11:00 a.m., parents were lining up to pick up their kids early.
Police cars — lights flashing — were parked near an entrance.
School officials directed students and traffic, ensuring no one unfamiliar entered the campus.
The parents I spoke to said they had been notified that all JPS students could be picked up early.
Travis Cooley, Parent: "I got kids at Cascades, they locked that down. Parkside they locked down, and here. And they, basically, in the letter I read they said that no schools are safe right now, currently."
I spoke briefly with Assistant Superintendent Kriss Giannetti as she was overseeing the pick-up at Jackson High. She said only a half-day of classes had been planned district-wide, in any event.
The investigation into who sent the threats and their authenticity is ongoing.
If you have any information, you are asked to call Crime Stoppers at (855) 840-7867.
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