Superior Central Schools and the Michigan State Police responded to a perceived threat on Wednesday, April 12. According to SC Superintendent Bill Valima, the investigation started with the MSP after the school day on Tuesday.
“I was contacted late last night (Tuesday) and working with the Michigan State Police as they investigated,” Valima said. “(The perceived threat) was brought to my attention by the state police, so they’re taking the lead.”
Multiple detectives and troopers from the MSP were at the school on Wednesday, with a visible presence around the campus. The threat and investigation was announced on the Superior Central Facebook page, with the announcement made while many students were travelling or already to the school. Commenting was turned off for the post, but parents and community members were asked to directly contact Valima with questions.
Some parents pulled their children out of school after the threat was announced, but the vast majority of the students remained. Text messages from parents and students sent to Beacon reporters stated that the school day proceeded as normal as possible, but said the normal schedule was more disrupted by PSAT and SAT testing for the middle and high school students than the investigation. Elementary students continued to recess outside.
While some members of the community expressed theories on what caused the threat, there is no evidence to confirm or debunk why a threat was made or how legitimate the threat was. MSP is still investigating the incident at time of deadline for this week’s edition. Any further information will be shared on the Munising Beacon Facebook page and in next week’s edition.
A number of school threats have been made in various ways throughout the 2022-23 school year, ranging from bomb threats to targeted incidents of violence. Most recently, schools in Dickinson and Iron Counties were placed in soft lockdown protocols after a 24-year-old Iron Mountain man threatened unnamed schools in the area on Monday in an unrelated incident.
