North Mahaska Taking Precautions After Threat

New Sharon, Iowa – The North Mahaska School District made a Facebook post on Monday, September 20th, at 11:15 pm, stating that “At approximately 9:17pm on September 20, the administration was made aware that one of our high school students received a threat from an unknown person on Snapchat. The unknown person threatened harm to the school, the student, and the student’s family if they did not comply with the inappropriate requests.”

The post went on to say that law enforcement was notified, and they responded immediately.

“Out of an abundance of caution, law enforcement will be present throughout the day on Tuesday, September 21. We encourage parents to monitor their students’ social media accounts and discourage friendships or follow requests from any unknown individuals.”

The post encouraged those with any information regarding the situation to contact the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office.

In an email sent out on the morning of September 21st, the district said that law enforcement had tracked the threat made on social media towards a student, their family, and the school to an out-of-state IP address.

“They do not believe this is a credible threat. The unknown individual who made the threat was requesting inappropriate photos.

The email states that “Out of an abundance of caution, law enforcement will be present at school today, September 21, 2021.”

People expressed their displeasure and concerns on the Facebook post by the district, stating that parents should have been alerted more directly.

Oskaloosa News reached out to North Mahaska Superintendent Angela Livezey, and she returned our call shortly after 11 am.

Livezey said that the district continues to work with law enforcement to “ensure that students and staff and our school community is safe.”

Livezey said that emails were sent to parents and staff on Monday at 11:08 pm regarding the threat. “A decision was made not to text parents at 11:08 because it was late. We made a conscious effort to do that this morning.”

The staff at North Mahaska was also emailed about a meeting “to answer questions and to ensure they were aware of their role for the day and helping students feel safe and secure in our learning environment.”

Livezey went on to say the district sent an email update to parents at 6:51 am and at 6:53 am, an alert was sent via text message.

“The threat was made last night and it was determined to be credible by law enforcement,” added Livezey.

“Unfortunately, some predator whose IP address has been tracked to out of state is preying on students for inappropriate photos,” Livezey added. “Parents should be aware of, and talking with their children about not friending or allowing followers of people that they do not know on social media.”

Livezey added, “These predators use terrible tactics to try and scare the kids to get them to send inappropriate photos.”

The Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office posted a press release about the incident.

In the release, the Sheriff’s Office says they were made aware that a student from North Mahaska High School had received threats via social media. “Sheriff’s officials responded to the school and spoke with the student and the student’s parent. It was determined that the threats were made toward the student and toward the school building itself, via Snapchat. These threats were reportedly made to the student when the student refused to send inappropriate photographs to the unknown sender.”

“The preliminary investigation into these threats determined that the sender was not located in or around the Mahaska County area. Sheriff’s officials had an increased presence at the school as students and staff were arriving this morning.”

“The investigation into this matter is continuing, and the Sheriff’s Office is working closely with school officials.”

***Update – 11:30am***

Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem said that a person of interest has been developed. “However, like the original press release said, he is not, or anywhere near Mahaska County.”

“We did have a pretty good presence at the school today and continue to have it there, just out of an abundance of caution,” Van Renterghem added.

Van Renterghem said the significant presence was in abundance of caution, just in case something happened, but also to help the students and staff feel a bit more at ease.