STANFORD – In the late afternoon on Thursday, November 11, the Olympia School District was made aware of a social media post depicting an Olympia High School student holding a weapon and purportedly making threats against the school. The school administration, in conjunction with the school resource officer, McLean County Sheriff’s Deputy Dillon Hodges, conducted a rapid investigation into the post and determined the threat to not be credible.

The post, which has been removed, and was not widely circulated, was determined to contain a doctored photograph. The picture, which displayed an OHS student holding a weapon, was later tampered with to include threatening words super-imposed on the photograph by a third-party, another Olympia High School student. The original, unaltered photograph was posted weeks earlier, and contained no reference to the school, or other students.

The families of both high school students involved were brought to the school to address the issue. Since all the parties to the incident, including those who could have been exposed to the post, were related to Olympia High School, the parents of high school students were notified by the school administration of the incident, and the disposition of the issue. Since the threat was neither timely nor credible, further notifications to parents in the broader district were not made.