2 threats made at Maple Grove Middle School in one week
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Law enforcement is investigating two separate threats made at Maple Grove Middle School this week. Osseo Area Public Schools have assured parents that no threat exists to students or staff.
Principal Patrick Smith sent an email to parents Thursday night saying that the incidents were unrelated and that school would resume as normal Friday morning. This, after students and staff had to be evacuated Thursday afternoon following a bomb threat that was called in.
Parents say they rushed to the school Thursday after receiving text messages from their children and didn’t receive any official communication from the school for 30-40 minutes.
"It was chaos. No one knew what was going on," said Marissa Mulder who has a 7th grader at the school.
Mulder is concerned about the lag in communication, especially considering she received what she describes as a vague note about a separate threat just the day before.
"Parents should be notified when things happen. We should not find out through our kids."
In response, a district spokesperson said via email "families are always notified as quickly as possible as soon as details are known and can be accurately shared. In this particular situation, some of the details were being worked on and finalized up until the 10 minutes before the first message went out."
Another parent, Kristen Lindholm, said she kept her kids home Thursday because of concern for the threat that school officials said happened over the weekend.
In an email to parents regarding a "social media post with some concerning content" district officials assured parents that there was no threat and that data privacy laws prohibited them from sharing more. Lindholm said until more details are shared, she’ll likely keep her children home out of caution. Thursday’s events only furthered her concern.
According to data recorded by the Minnesota Department of Education, there were 36 bomb threats and 356 terroristic threats made in Minnesota public schools during the 2021-2022 school year.