BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. — Blythewood High School will have an e-learning day Thursday as its students and staff recover from a stressful day caused by a fake threat against the school.
The district announced Wednesday night that the school would move to that adapted school day for Thursday.
Students can pick up their belongings that they may have left at the school between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. Bagged lunches will also be available for pickup from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the cafeteria.
The district will have virtual counseling from 12–4 p.m.. A link for that will be sent to students before 12 p.m. Thursday.
The district added that after-school activities will take place as normal. In-person instruction is expected to resume Friday.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said around 10:25 a.m. Wednesday, someone called 911 saying a person had been shot inside a classroom at the school. That threat triggered a massive response, with the department sending over 100 officers to the school. Thinking the threat was real, students and faculty executed their active shooter protocols, which meant some students evacuated the school and some stayed inside classrooms for safety.
Law enforcement determined a short time later the threat was a hoax. Lott believes it was part of a social media challenge on TikTok that called for threats to be made against schools. Over a dozen school districts across the state reported similar threats, including Newberry County Schools and Sumter County Schools. Both the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the FBI are investigating, but no arrests or charges have been made yet.
Below is the full letter sent home to students at Blythewood High School:
Good evening Bengal Nation,
Knowing that all of our students, employees and parents are receiving this message in the safety of their homes with their families gives me so much joy. There are no words that can fully convey the depth of my appreciation and admiration of our students, employees and parents. Today you all went above and beyond in responding to an extremely stressful situation.
School and district leaders are beyond grateful that there were no physical injuries caused by this thoughtless hoax directed at our school and others across our state. However, we fully understand the emotional trauma that many may have experienced today. Therefore we have decided that tomorrow will be an asynchronous e-learning day for students.
Employees will report to school tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Members of the Richland Two Learning Support Services team will meet with employees to help them process what occurred and prepare for helping students do the same when they return to school on Friday, October 7, 2022.
On Thursday, October 6:
- Blythewood High School will be open to students and parents between 12-4 p.m. to pick up any items left at school or to receive counseling.
- Teachers will post asynchronous assignments in Google Classroom on Thursday and students will have until the end of the day on Tuesday, Oct. 11 to complete and turn in assignments in order to be counted present on Thursday, Oct. 6.
- Virtual counseling services will be offered tomorrow from 12–4 p.m. A link to connect to those services will be emailed out to students and parents Thursday prior to 12 p.m.
- Bagged lunches will be available to pick-up on Thursday from 12-2 p.m. at the cafeteria.
- After-school activities, to include practices or games scheduled for Thursday, will take place as scheduled.
Students and employees will report to school on Friday on a normal schedule. Counseling services will be provided on Friday and for as long as our students and employees need to process today’s event.