Skyline High School investigates vague “threat”

The Idaho Falls School District and Skyline High School Administration has advised parents and students about an incident first reported a few weeks ago. At that time, a student found a line of graffiti written on a restroom wall.

The message found written on the wall was:” April 25 IM ‘shooting’ up.”

A school resource officer immediately began an investigation. Administrators texted the following message to Skyline parents Tuesday:

Dear Parents/Patrons,
This message is to inform you about an incident that was reported and investigated at Skyline High School a few weeks ago and may come to your attention.

A student reported that graffiti on a bathroom stall said: April 25. I am “shooting” up. School administrators immediately reported the graffiti to the Idaho Falls Police Department who followed up on the report.

We know that with recent incidents, social media postings with information from uninformed sources have greatly raised concerns and anxieties about school safety so we wanted to share this information with Skyline parents.

We take precautions every day to minimize risks and mitigate dangers in our schools. Tomorrow those precautions will continue to be in effect at Skyline High School and out of an abundance of caution, we will also increase supervision by staff and police.

This is a good opportunity to discuss these types of threats written on restroom walls, made on social media, etc with your child so if they hear or see anything they report it. House Bill 665 was signed into law on March 23, 2018, making it a misdemeanor for making a threat that disrupts school activities.

Again, the reason for this email is to make sure parents have good information about this report. We do not have any other details at this time. We will share additional information if it becomes available using our text messaging system. Unless you have critical information to share, we would ask that you not call the school so our staff can concentrate on your students.

Thank you,

Sarah Sanders
Director of Secondary Ed

In addition to the legal amendments approved by the legislature this winter, local prosecutors remind that previous state law made it clear that threatening anyone at a school with a deadly or dangerous firearm or by any other means, is a crime and may be subject to investigation and prosecution.