Flathead Valley students to return to schools Tuesday
School and law enforcement officials announced that Flathead Valley public schools would open to staff but remain closed to students on Monday and that student classes and activities would resume Tuesday.
Flathead Valley Community College resumed all regularly scheduled classes and activities on Monday.
Flathead Valley schools had been closed since Thursday after undisclosed threats were reportedly made via email and text to Columbia Falls school officials Wednesday night.
According to a press release issued by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement officials met with school administrators and updated them on the status of the investigation Sunday.
“We advised them we have, to date, discovered nothing other than verbal threats, delivered over the internet, that are crafted to incite fear,” the release states. “Again, public safety and the safety of our children remain our paramount concern and focus. In that interest we will be assisting area schools with security assessments [Monday], and will maintain a law enforcement presence in our schools until we are able to apprehend the suspect, or further discredit the threat.”
According to information issued Sunday evening by Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau, on Monday “all staff in Kalispell Public Schools and other Flathead Valley Schools will report to work and use the day to make plans for students to return to school on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Law enforcement will have a presence on all public school campuses on Tuesday ... and will work to provide additional presence in the days to come.”
Parents in the Kalispell Public School District had the opportunity to meet with building administrators Monday afternoon to answer questions.
“We would like to thank our families and staff for your patience as we continue to keep our students and staff safe,” Flatau said in an email statement sent to parents Sunday evening. Classes were canceled Thursday and Friday valleywide, and all activities for Flathead Valley schools, home and away, were canceled over the weekend. The closure impacted about 15,700 students in more than 30 public and private schools.
On Saturday, officials said a suspect also hacked into the Columbia Falls School District servers, accessing student and staff information and contacting individuals directly.
Columbia Falls Police Chief Clint Peters wrote in a media release Saturday that “the cyber terrorist who has been spreading fear and panic in our community through text message and email threats against our school has now stooped to the low level of texting parents and students in hopes to continue his barrage of digital fear mongering.”
Peters told the Inter Lake that the police department had confirmed reports that individual parents and students had received threatening texts. He urged anyone who receives a threatening text to not engage in conversation or try to respond, but to report it to the Columbia Falls Police Department immediately at 406-892-3234.
“Investigators continue to make progress in identifying and determining the location of the suspect in this case,” according to the Sheriff’s Office statement Sunday. “We have, however, developed no information that leads us to believe that the suspect is actually in our area. The suspect could, in fact, be behind a keyboard anywhere in the world. All local references in our negotiations with the suspect are easily available online or from already compromised networks. We continue to work tirelessly to determine that location, and fully discredit the threat.”
The FBI is aiding local and regional police jurisdictions in the ongoing investigation.