Hiawatha School District 426, Genoa-Kingston School District 424 lockdowns caused by social media post

KIRKLAND – A misinterpreted post on a social media app spooked parents and caused two school districts to go into lockdown mode Monday as students returned from spring break.

Hiawatha Community Unit School District 426 went into what administrators called a modified soft lockdown Monday morning after district officials learned about a post on Yik Yak that raised safety concerns for students. Genoa-Kingston Community Unit School District 424 also was placed on lockdown after the post was tracked to a Genoa-Kingston High School student.

The post read “for those about to die, we salute you,” Kirkland police Chief Paul Lindstrom said.

Yik Yak offers users an anonymous “forum to interact with other Yik Yak users in the same area,” according to the company’s website. Users can post, share comments and respond to comments posted by others.

After interviewing the student, DeKalb County police determined students were never in danger and the post was not intended as a threat. The statement is a phrase often associated with gladiators in ancient Rome.

But it had already rattled some in the community.

“A parent brought in a posting with an implied threat and it was unclear if it was directed at our school,” District 426 Superintendent Sarah Willey said.

As a precaution, District 426 implemented the modified soft lockdown, which kept students in the buildings, but didn’t restrict their movement inside the schools. The district also notified parents and canceled all after-school activities.

“We we’re being proactive,” Willey said.

Even so, some parents picked their students up from school early, she said.

Susan Zuberbier, a District 426 parent, told her son to come home from school early after exchanging a series of text messages with him. The teen told Zuberbier that he was scared and “didn’t want to be shot.”

“It was a nightmare,” Zuberbier said. “That is the last thing you’d ever expect in the Kirkland school system.”

Zuberbier said she thought school officials should have notified parents earlier or canceled classes altogether.

After getting an alert from the school district about 10 a.m. Monday and later seeing a screen shot of the post on social media, fellow District 426 parent Jennifer Sunderlage had her husband pick up her four children at school.

“As a mom, when you see something like that, you kind of panic,” she said. “I didn’t want my kids at the school.”

She said she understands the difficult task school administrators faced in wanting to keep parents informed without causing unnecessary chaos. However, she would have liked a more prompt response from the district. Sunderlage said she heard of other parents who found out about the Yik Yak post before school started and kept their children home.

Genoa-Kingston Community Unit School District 424 schools were placed on lockdown after learning of the post, Superintendent Joe Burgess said. District 424 didn’t cancel activities.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Burgess said.

Investigators from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office interviewed a student at Genoa-Kingston High School, but determined that no crime had been committed, Chief Deputy Gary Dumdie said. He said no criminal action would be taken.

The school could discipline the student, but Burgess said it would depend on the outcome of the Sheriff’s investigation.

Dumdie said the Yik Yak post was “misconstrued from it’s intended meaning.” He said the social media app, which gives users a live feed of what’s going on near them, cooperated with law enforcement to identify the person who posted the comment.

Willey said regular activities will resume Tuesday at Hiawatha schools.

Both Willey and Burgess praised the work of local law enforcement agencies, their respective employees and students.

“There was some disruption, but our kids handled it really well,” Burgess said. “I’m really proud of them.”