Chippewa Hills schools close over emails

Mt. Pleasant High closed over threat

Chippewa Hills School District was closed Friday, following a mass email sent to the district’s high and intermediate districts that included vulgar language. The district’s superintendent disclosed the nature of the email in a message to the district’s community on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Mt. Pleasant High School was closed early Friday afternoon due to a threat. All games and afterschool activities were canceled, and the Gratiot-isabella Technical Education Center classes at Mt. Pleasant High were also canceled. No details on the threat were immediately available.

“I shared earlier that we had a mass email sent out to our HS and IS with some vulgar language regarding our school,” said the message from Chippewa Hills Superintendent Bob Grover. “While the message itself did not make any threats of harm, it certainly can be interpreted to be threatening based on the content and manner of presentation.”

It informed parents that there would be a police presence at the district’s schools on Friday.

However, by Friday, the district announced that all of its schools were closed.

Grover confirmed by email that the closures were related to the letter.

“We were closed for safety precautions based on the email sent out the letter referenced,” he said by email.

The letter also referenced this week’s shootings at Oxford High School in Oakland County that left four dead.

Oakland County has asked the FBI and U.S. Secret Service to help investigate hundreds of threats that have led to dozens of school closures on Thursday and Friday affecting thousands of students.

The wave of threats shared on social media follows Tuesday’s shooting at Oxford High School, where four students were killed and seven others injured. Ethan Crumbley, a 15-yearold sophomore at the school, has been charged as an adult with four counts of first-degree murder and terrorism along with other felony gun charges. He is being held at the Oakland County jail.

Schools were closed in Rochester, Southfield, Lake Orion, Troy, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Waterford, Walled Lake, Auburn Hills, Clarkston, Huron Valley, Armada, Warren, and Holly. Most of the districts also canceled afternoon and evening activities. Oxford Community Schools had already announced Tuesday night its buildings would be closed all week. Timothy Waters, special agent in charge of the FBI’S Detroit Field Office, said Thursday about 40 people are working 24-7 to track down threats. So far, 25 threats are being investigated, he said.

“There’s a lot of people who are concerned and they have every right to be,” Waters said. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said they have received hundreds of threats, adding that law enforcement continues to investigate and address false information that continues to circulate via social media.

“It costs a great deal of resources to run these down, to tell people time and time again this information is false,” Bouchard said.