Classes resumed at public schools in Cedar Rapids Tuesday after being canceled on Monday due to threats made on social media over the weekend. Students were not allowed to bring bags into the schools, except for clear backpacks, and the number of entrances to buildings left unlocked were restricted. During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) Superintendent Dr. Tawana Grover said those safety measures would remain in place for the rest of the week.
Neither Gower nor Cedar Rapids Police Department (CRPD) Capt. Charlie Fields, who also spoke at the news conference, provided much new information about the threats or the ongoing investigation into them.
“I understand the heightened sense of concern around safety when there is an incident and limited details about the situation,” Gower said. “In instances of this nature, it is critical that we protect the integrity of the investigation, which oftentimes doesn’t afford us the opportunity to share.”
The superintendent said about 60 percent of CRCSD students attended school on Tuesday. She repeated a statement the district made on Sunday night: that the safety and well-being of students and staff is the district’s top priority. Gower said that classes would not have resumed if CRCSD and CRPD weren’t confident that students would be safe in the school buildings.
Gower also said the district was ready to assist students worried about returning to school following the threats.
“Counselors and other crisis support teams are available at our schools for our students who have concerns about the incident,” she explained. “We’re also asking our parents to monitor their students’ social media accounts for any suspicious or concerning material, and remind them about the importance of reporting anything that threatens their well-being.”
Capt. Fields said CRPD had recommended canceling classes on Monday, because of “the amount of information that we had to go through and comb through.”
“We wanted to make sure that we had a safe environment for these students to return to school,” he said. “It takes time to go through social media accounts in trying to find where the original source of the threat came from.”
“We continue to work on that.”
Fields said CRPD is being assisted by agents from the School Safety Bureau of the Iowa Department of Public Safety as they try “to track down information through the Snapchat and other social media posts that we’ve received.”
According to Fields, “If we are able to identify the individuals or individual who have created these posts and made these threats, they will be held accountable for their actions.”
Responding to a reporter’s questions, Fields declined to say what specifically prompted the shutdown beyond describing it as “a threat of violence at the school.”
In response to another question, Field elaborated slightly, saying, “If anybody’s seen the social media post, you know that it started with Roosevelt school, and it migrated from other locations [sic], not just in our school district, but in other school districts in Iowa. Whether it’s the same exact threat or not, we’ve seen additional threats throughout our community.”
Fields was referring to Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy.
At the end of the 15-minute-long news conference, a reporter tried to get Field to clarify his remark about other locations and other districts.
“You said other school districts are now experiencing the same thing, so is this a nationwide hoax or something that just occurred in Cedar Rapids?” the reporter asked.
Fields responded by referring to the call of “last question” made by a communications staffer at the news conference.
“We had one more question, and it was answered,” Fields said, ending the news conference.
Update — Friday, Oct. 6
On Thursday night, the Cedar Rapids Police Department (CRPD) announced an arrest had been made “in connection to the social media threats” that caused the Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) to cancel classes on Monday.
“The ongoing investigation led to a 14-year-old juvenile from Cedar Rapids being charged,” CRPD said.
Because the person arrested is a minor, no further information about the arrest was released, beyond CRPD saying the investigation that led to the suspect had been conducted with the assistance of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
“Elements of this case remain under investigation,” CRPD said at the conclusion of its statement.
This story originally appeared in LV Daily, Little Village’s Monday-Friday email newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered for free to your inbox.
