Students, parents concerned after fake threat at Roy High School

ROY — Extra police officers are patrolling Roy High School, after another school threat.

“Twenty years ago you had graffiti on the bathroom wall and it was dealt with by the school. Now because of social media and how connected we are with our society, these things tend to effect a lot of people,” said Weber School District Community Relations and Safety Specialist Lane Findlay.

Findlay said a threat was found written in graffiti in a girl’s bathroom at Roy High School Wednesday. He said while school officials and police don’t believe it to be a credible one, they’re reminding students that they take all threats seriously.

“Kids need to understand it’s not a joke. It’s not funny,” he said.

We spoke to students as they arrived to school Thursday morning. Some were evidently on edge. Others had no clue what had happened.

“A lot of kids like wouldn’t even show up to school today because they’re scared and really nervous of what could happen,” said sophomore Jacee Caldwell.

She was glad the school had extra police on campus as a precaution.

“I’m glad they take it seriously, because if they didn’t then kids would really do it because they would know they could get away with it,” she said.

One parent KSL spoke to was not quite as pleased. Daniel Butler kept his son home Thursday “for safety precautions, just to make sure.” He wished the school would have let parents know about the graffiti much sooner in the day Wednesday when they found out about the threat.

“They feel like it’s not a credible situation, which it may or may not be, but if I have to predict from an outside view with little information if I may consider it serious or not, I’m going to take it seriously,” said Butler.

Findlay said it just depends on the situation. They don’t want to invoke fear for no reason either.

“It’s evaluated case by case. I mean, obviously, if there was something to it, if there really was a threat, then there would be more information sent out by different means,” said Findlay, who helped send the email to parents as rumors circulated on social media. “That’s part of the reason for trying to put information out, so people are aware of, ‘Hey, we’re dealing with this, this is what it is and you know your kids are safe.’”

Findlay said if parents still have a concern about their child or should ever have one in the future, contact their school. He said the schools always have resources available for students too. He also suggests students download the SafeUT app.

Roy police continue to investigate the incident. Findlay said school officials have an idea who did it.