Australian boy's threat posted on internet causes Minneapolis school lockdown

[Syt]

US schools in lockdown after Australian threat

A vague threat apparently posted from Australia on two social networking sites has led to the lockdown of all schools in the busy midwestern US city of Minneapolis.

Police say city officials received a phone call early on Wednesday alerting them to an online threat that a young man planned to "shoot up" an unspecified school and then kill himself.

US media is reporting that an American teenage boy who lives in Australia may be responsible.

Officials decided to place all schools on a "code yellow" lockdown as a precautionary measure while investigating the validity of the threat.

The lockdown, which affected about 34,000 students at 60 schools in the Minneapolis public school system, meant children were kept in their classrooms while outside visitors were strictly limited.

"We took this very seriously," Minneapolis police spokesman Jesse Garcia told reporters.

"We err on the side of caution," added Minneapolis Public Schools spokesman Stan Alleyne.

"The schools operated as normally as possible but we just had more security."

The unprecedented measure was lifted at the end of the school day and bussing proceeded as normal, school officials said.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis's twin city of St Paul, the Cretin-Derham Hall Catholic school was also locked down after it received an email notification of the threat.

"It was determined that the source of the threats was the same," St Paul police Paul Schnell told AFP.

"The source of the threat originated out of Australia."

He said authorities were still trying to determine who was responsible for the threat and did not identify the social networking sites involved.

[MadImmortalMan]

Facebook and MySpace. Duh.

[DGuller]

BTW, can anyone explain to me the point of a lockdown?  If there is a gunman in one of the rooms, do you really want that room to be locked down?

[grumbler]

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis's twin city of St Paul, the Cretin-Derham Hall Catholic school was also locked down after it received an email notification of the threat.

1.  Why is a St Paul Catholic school named (partially) after Martinus?
2.  What is this "Derham Hall" with which he shares the name of the school?

[DisturbedPervert]

US media is reporting that an American teenage boy who lives in Australia may be responsible.

Only one punishment for this

[grumbler]

BTW, can anyone explain to me the point of a lockdown?  If there is a gunman in one of the rooms, do you really want that room to be locked down?

My theory has always been that having a lockdown policy and practicing it on occasion reassures parents that the school officials and students will be actively doing something as they are being slaughtered, as opposed to just sitting there waiting for it.

If it ever comes down to it, I am having my kids run like the wind.

[Martinus]

And they say technology doesn't make live easier. In my day, one had to call the school about a bomb to shut it down. Now all you have to do is post shit on Facebook. Progress!

[DGuller]

In my college, paradoxically enough, almost all the bomb threats came during the final exam time.  You'd think that would be the one time during the year where students would be too busy to play around with bombs.

[HVC]

In my college, paradoxically enough, almost all the bomb threats came during the final exam time.  You'd think that would be the one time during the year where students would be too busy to play around with bombs.

[dps]

BTW, can anyone explain to me the point of a lockdown?  If there is a gunman in one of the rooms, do you really want that room to be locked down?

If there's a threat that seems at all credible, I think the proper thing to do would be to send everyone home.  Why force them to stay there if you have reason to believe that someone is going to shoot the place up?

[Jaron]

A lockdown is incredibly useful. In any emergency situation, the school will obviously benefit from having knowledge of where all its students and staff are. Both will be far more safe in a locked classroom than "running like the wind" off the campus.

Shame on you, grumbler.

[grumbler]

A lockdown is incredibly useful. In any emergency situation, the school killer will obviously benefit from having knowledge of where all its students and staff are. Both will be far more unsafe in a locked classroom which can easily be broken in to than "running like the wind" off the campus.

FYP.  Read about one of the real heroes of the Virginia Tech Massacre: http://www.virginiatechmassacre.com/liviu-librescu.html

His students fled, and lived.  Had he sent them fleeing earlier, he could have lived as well.  Lesson taken.

[Ed Anger]

Grumbler remembers running like the wind at Teutoburger Wald

[dps]

A lockdown is incredibly useful. In any emergency situation, the school killer will obviously benefit from having knowledge of where all its students and staff are. Both will be far more unsafe in a locked classroom which can easily be broken in to than "running like the wind" off the campus.

FYP.  Read about one of the real heroes of the Virginia Tech Massacre: http://www.virginiatechmassacre.com/liviu-librescu.html

His students fled, and lived.  Had he sent them fleeing earlier, he could have lived as well.  Lesson taken.

Jaron's advice reminds me of an old tactical wargame (forgot the name) that used the same CRT for bombarments as for melee, so the best tactic if your forces were being bombarded was to pack as many troops as possible into the area that you expected the shells to land.