Hartley, Iowa — What at first was thought to be a threat to a northwest Iowa school and one of its administrators has turned out to be only a rumor connected to a benign conversation between two students.
According to O’Brien County Sheriff Allen Schuknecht, the rumor started when one student came to school at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn wearing a trench coat. Schuknecht says another student said something to the effect of, “Hey, you look like a school shooter.” He says the first student said something to the effect of, “If I was, you’d be the first to go.”
Schuknecht says a third party overheard the conversation and took it out of context. He says the Hartley Police Department was called and investigated the incident.
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Superintendent Bill Thompson says rumors about the incident ran wild and included everything from there being a gun and a hit list in the student’s belongings to a verbal threat of a principal to there being actual shots fired, but none of it was true.
Sheriff Schuknecht says thankfully the investigation turned up no gun, no note, and no threat.
