Oak Park Schools are closed through Friday after officials learned of threats to shoot up the high school that were posted on an anonymous third-party messaging app called Sarahah.
Police in neighboring Ferndale said a student there reported a similar anonymous shooting threat Wednesday morning, about the same time Oak Park police and school official learned of multiple threats.
Ferndale police and school officials said officers investigated and found the threat was not credible. Ferndale schools remain open.
Oak Park Schools Superintendent Daveda Colbert released a statement saying all schools in the district would be closed Thursday and Friday.
‘There was extreme anxiety due to the unsettling posts,’ she said, ‘Social media posts with threats against schools were reported at more than 30 schools/districts’ in the metro Detroit area.
Oak Park Public safety detectives are investigating the incident and have been keeping a police presence around all the schools in the district, said Oak Park Public Safety Lt. Troy Taylor.
Taylor said a threat to shoot up Oak Park High School and the Oak Park alternative high school were shown as screen shots on social media.
‘We are trying to determine where it originated from,’ he said. ‘Ferndale and Warren have reported similar issues. It seems like yesterday (Wednesday) everybody made a decision to post the anonymous threats.’
In light of the Valentine’s Day school shooting in Parkland, Fla. that left 17 dead, Taylor said Oak Park police are taking every precaution to make sure students are safe.
In Macomb County at least three dozen threats to schools have been reported since the mass shooting in Florida. At least five students have been charged as adults with 20-year felonies of making a terroristic threat or falsely reporting terrorism. There are also at least 14 people in Macomb County facing charges in juvenile court, according to the Macomb Daily.
A Ferndale student received an anonymous threat to shoot up the high school and reported it to officials at 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, said Ferndale Police Lt. Casey O’Loughlin.
‘Detroit schools received numerous (threat) calls,’ he said. ‘Given the amount of calls it was pretty obvious it was a large hoax.’
Ferndale Schools Superintendent Dania Bazzi that all schools are open after police determined there was no legitimate threat.
‘We’re business as usual today,’ she said Thursday morning.
The Sarahah app used to spread the anonymous threats was developed in Saudia Arabia last year, according to the BBC news in England.
The BBC reported last month that the anonymous messaging app was removed from Apple and Google stores following accusations that the app facilitated bullying among young people.
Lt. Taylor in Oak Park said a screen shot threatening a shooting at the high school was shared on the app but indicated no specific target.
‘Using the app makes it difficult for us to track down where the threats originated from,’ he said.
