VFW recognizes community heroes
Teens who raised alarm about threat given scholarships
Students who raised the alarm about a potential threat at Fortuna Union High School were recognized.
A letter of recognition and a cash scholarship were personally delivered last week from Veterans of Foreign Wars Sunset Post #2207 to those who alerted Fortuna Union High School authorities last month about a possible plan to harm students at the school. The identities of those who reported the incident are not being released.
The reporting of the information to school officials led to two Fortuna Union High School students being taken into custody and the discovery of evidence validating the original claim.
In the letter, VFW Sunset Post #2207 Commander Al Dunnegan recognized the importance of reporting the information to Fortuna Union High School officials.
“I acknowledge your courage and your patriotism, for what you did on the 22nd of October that potentially saved dozens of lives in our community,” Dunnegan wrote.
VFW Sunset Post #2207 also presented scholarships to those who reported the matter.
“On behalf of Fortuna’s VFW post-military veterans, I also present this gift to you as a small recognition of your service to our community,” he wrote. “This gift was unanimously endorsed by our veterans and is given to you on their behalf. We often award scholarships to (people) your age, but we seldom are given the privilege of recognizing the courage of a person your age who has saved lives.”
“The two individuals that were being implicated in this plot (to harm other students) were taken into the office and during that investigation, we located evidence
on the person that was consistent with what was being told to school officials,” Fortuna Police Chief Bill Dobberstein said during a news conference in October.
Police officers also searched two houses in connection with the incident, one in Fortuna and one in Rio Dell and were able to obtain more evidence which was added to the investigation.
A news release from the Fortuna Police Department issued after the Oct. 22 incident mentioned the excellent working relationship between the police department and Fortuna Union High School.