by Parker H. Jimison
Around 11am on Thursday, May 2, a student at Huntley Project High School reportedly made threats that he would shoot up the school in response to his frustration with teasing from another group of students. According to statements given to the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, a student had overheard a group of peers teasing the student involved and supposedly asking “what color shirt they should wear so they don’t get shot,” and, at one point, the student was heard to have responded with something along the lines of “you’re moving higher up on my hit list.”
During the last period of the day, a student concerned about their safety brought these threats to the attention of a teacher at the school who emailed Huntley Project High principal Sam Bruner, who contacted both the student’s parents and the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies were dispatched at 4:15pm to speak with Bruner, who said he was not overly concerned by the situation. Both the Sheriff’s Office and Mark Wandle, Superintendent of HP Schools, have stated that law enforcement has conducted an investigation into the threats made, including a visit to the student’s home where he denied having said anything about wanting to shoot up the school and that he had no intention of harming anyone or himself and the deputy was informed that they don’t have any firearms in the home. The student’s backpack and locker were searched, and as of press time, there is no evidence of him being in possession of a firearm, no “hit list” has emerged, and the Sheriff’s Office has determined that the student had just “made a senseless comment about a hit list to kids that were teasing him.”
