Many Jackson Hole High School students stay home after shooting threat
The town of Jackson was on edge Friday after a Jackson Hole High School student threatened a shooting at the school Thursday.
Almost half of the high school’s student body chose to stay home, including Ingvill Rognerud, a 17-year-old exchange student from Norway.
“When I was in Norway, I heard about this, like, all over America, that school shootings happen,” Rognerud said.
But Rognerud never imagined it would be a fellow student who would make such a disturbing threat.
“When I heard about yesterday, it did kind of scare me,” Rognerud said, adding that she felt safer at home Friday.
“She chose not to go because, one, the principal said it would be an excused absence, and she just didn’t feel safe,” said Priscilla Cline, Rognerud’s guardian.
Students who did make it to school were greeted by police officers stationed at all corners of the campus. In fact, all Teton County School District schools saw heightened police presence Friday.
“There’s about seven police officers there. They’re all making sure that the school is safe,” said Konor Anderson, a student at Jackson Hole High School.
While Anderson doesn’t know the student who made the threat, he said there’s rumors that that student made the threat because “he really didn’t want to go to school anymore.”
Anderson said the student left a note with what police describe as a “very specific” threat in an upstairs boys bathroom. The Teton County Sheriff’s Office said the threat was discovered by school officials around 11:45 a.m. Thursday.
“The middle stall was taken out where the threat was made,” Anderson said.
Longtime Jackson resident Tony Saladino said in his 31 years living in Jackson, he’s never seen or heard anything like this before.
“I think we’ve had no serious crime here. Maybe one person was murdered about 15 years ago,” said Saladino.
The Sheriff’s Office said Thursday officers took a 17-year-old male suspect into custody shortly before 6 p.m. The investigation is ongoing.
If you have any information regarding this threat, you can text an anonymous tip to the Sheriff’s Office at 888777.
