BEMIDJI, Minn. — A young man is facing possible charges after being apprehended by police in connection with a "credible threat" against the Bemidji Public School District.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson announced the development Wednesday morning, just hours after notifying students, families and staff that the district would be moving to e-learning for the day due to a threat that law enforcement had deemed as specific and credible.
In a release, Bemidji police said they investigated several text-to-911 messages that threatened a staff member and a Bemidji district school. Officials were not able to identify a suspect at first, and recommended closing schools for the following day.
Around 11 p.m. Tuesday, police identified the phone number and tracked it to a location where they arrested a juvenile male for felony terroristic threats. Officials said they used third-party cellular resellers to track the texts.
Superintendent Olson said in his message that the district considered the possibility of pivoting back to in-person learning Wednesday but determined it would be impossible to do so with the large number of staff that would need to be notified and the limited amount of time available.
"We want to thank law enforcement for their work to apprehend the individual responsible for the threats and to keep our schools and community safe," Olson wrote.
The situation came to light in a Facebook post Tuesday night, with the Bemidji Police Department posting the information along with a screenshot of Olson's message to stakeholders in Independent School District (ISD) #31.
Here is the superintendent's full message.
"At approximately 9:45 p.m. today, I was informed by law enforcement of a credible threat made against an ISD#31 School. As a result of this credible threat, law enforcement has advised the district not to hold classes for tomorrow. We will transition to an e-learning day for all district schools. The Bemidji Police Department and Bemidji Area Schools will collaborate together to provide information by tomorrow afternoon. Bemidji Area Schools takes the safety of our students and staff very seriously and is taking this step to keep our students and staff safe."
KARE 11 is following this story and will have additional details as they become available.
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