A student who allegedly threatened violence against the east-central Iowa school he’d quit attending is in custody and classes today (Wednesday) will be held as usual.
English Valley Community School Superintendent Alan Jensen says administrators decided to be on the safe side by locking the doors and asking deputies to provide security during the day on Tuesday. He sent students home from school after authorities told him the student in question had turned himself in.
The student was a sernior and attended school at the beginning of this year, but Jensen says he’d quit attending, moved out of his parents’ home, and didn’t have any address of his own that they could determine. The student turned himself in about four Tuesday afternoon and Jensen says he was arrested.
During the day yesterday, classes were held as usual. They did allow some students to leave. If they didn’t feel comfortable being in the school, they were allowed to go home, if the parents gave their permission.
Jensen says the English Valleys Community School District already had an emergency plan in place, something that’s recommended for all schools today. They put a lockdown procedure into action, moved kids who have class in the detached Ag Building into the main building, “shuffled some kids around, and made do.”
About 250 kids attend the junior and senior high school in North English, which is about 30 miles southwest of Iowa City.