GROVE CITY, Ohio — A middle school in Grove City implemented a "Stay Put" protocol after students alerted staff to a shooting threat that was reportedly airdropped to several students' phones Friday morning.
The airdrop message sent to Beulah Park Middle School students' phones read, "beulah park middle schools being shot up at 12:30 friday afternoon spread the word friday october 7 - from someone who knows the shooter."
Students departing one of the school's buses alerted staff to the threat around 9 a.m.
A release from the school states that a student saw the threat somewhere else online and decided to airdrop it to others. Staff members immediately implemented a "Stay Put" protocol while the Grove City Police Department works to investigate the legitimacy of the reported safety concern.
All students and staff are safe, Principal Dr. Chad Clark wrote in the release.
"Keeping an open line of communication with families is a vital part of our building and district safety process. As such, we wanted to keep parents and guardians informed as soon as it was safe to do so and we applaud our students for coming forward just as they are taught to do with 'see something, say something,'" Clark said.
Grove City police has placed extra security at the school. As of now, there is not a technical lockdown at the school, according to Grove City Police Lt. Jason Stern.
"There are uniformed officers at the school as a precautionary step for extra security, and the reassurance of student, staff, and parents," Stern wrote in a release. "We encourage parents to follow South-Western Schools direction regarding any operational change at the school."
"A ‘Stay Put’ protocol at South-Western City Schools is inherently different compared to a Lockdown protocol, which is reserved only for a confirmed threat inside the building where schools lock classroom doors or barricade, which is not the case today," Evan Debo, executive director of communications at South-Western City School District said. "Further, under a ‘Stay Put’ protocol, students are kept inside the building with large group movement restricted for safety purposes."
