WORTHINGTON, Ohio — Students returned to Worthington Kilbourne High School Monday morning after classes were canceled for two days last week in response to email threats.
In an update posted to the district’s website, Superintendent Trent Bowers said 95% of the staff and 85% of students were in attendance Monday.
Students and staff returned to an increased police presence at the high school. One of several additional safety measures put in place following the threats.
Worthington Kilbourne was closed Thursday and Friday after the district received two separate threats specifically targeting the school. Thursday's threat referenced bombing and shooting up the school Friday's threat referenced shooting Black students.
Due to the nature of the threats, Bowers said counselors were also made available to students and staff on Monday.
The superintendent released the following additional safety measures being implemented at the school:
- Students must enter and exit the building using the main entrance and exit in front of the building during the school day. No students are permitted to be inside the building before 8:00 AM. This allows our administration and safety monitors to conduct our morning assessment of the building.
- We are asking students who arrive late, return from lunch or appointments, etc., to use the Attendance Entrance and show their IDs. The IDs this year are digital and they can bring them up on their phones. We will have a QR code at the entrance to assist students to retrieve their IDs, as needed.
- Guests arriving to the building during the school day will be asked to notify our Student Services regarding the reason for their visit before being permitted to enter the office.
- We will conduct multiple perimeter checks of doors throughout the school day.
- Police Officers at our building will be placed strategically on our campus.
On Friday, the Worthington Schools Board of Education held a special executive meeting to athe threats.
Following the meeting, Bowers said the threats came from the same source and were both routed through Germany.
"The threats that we saw, especially the threats that targeted our black community are disgusting, they're something that no human should ever tolerate and it's shocking that somebody can even think the way that people think,” he said.
The district said the law enforcement investigation into the threats continues. Homeland Security and the FBI are assisting Columbus police in the case.
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