Chippewa Falls High School - Photo by WEAU
CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI (WSAU) – The Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District has responded to a police report that detailed that a student was searching for ways to purchase and build bombs last fall.
According to a press release from Superintendent Jeff Holmes, the district had determined that no students at the Middle School were in any kind of danger while the incident with the student was unfolding and praised the district staff’s hard work as well as the work of the local law enforcement for identifying the situation and being able to resolve the incident without any further issues.
Holmes also stated that the district determined that the incident did not rise to the level of requiring a public announcement back in October and had concerns that releasing the information to the public could cause safety issues for staff and students.
“Please know that we take these situations very seriously. Many of us are parents too and have kids in our schools, just like the parents we serve. We approach these matters with the utmost care, following all applicable laws, and with expert guidance to properly review each unique case. If a situation warrants informing a broader audience, we will provide updates to our constituents as we have always done,” Holmes said in the release.
The district also sent a notice about the incident to parents on Tuesday, February 6th, that stated, “As everyone knows, a school district is prohibited under state and federal law from providing personally identifiable information about student discipline.” “We appreciate parents’ concern and frustration that, at times, we cannot share as much information as we would like; we can only hope that our community will understand that we must follow the law and, if you think about it, almost any parent would want us to use the utmost discretion if it was about their child.”
Holmes did claim in the press release that the police report contained false or inaccurate information, though no details on what information was specifically inaccurate were provided and no evidence debunking the police report itself was provided either.
The police report was first made public by the conservative news podcast Louder with Crowder, which was the first to release copies of the manifesto belonging to the Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale last year. According to the police report, the Chippewa Falls student was looking to purchase materials to build bombs and information on how to build them in hopes of creating “the next Columbine.”
The investigation was initially prompted when district staff found the student was searching concerning topics online such as “Complete Story of Columbine Shooting on YouTube,” “How to Make Pipe Bombs,” as well as “How to Make a Nuclear Reactor at Home.”
Chippewa Falls Police discovered a notebook during the investigation belonging to the student that was titled “Oporutors Manuel to Manic Violence,” (sic) which contained details on wanting to “kill multiple students” at Chippewa Falls Middle School along with anti-Christian rhetoric and threats against people of faith.
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