By Austin Rust-

On Friday, Oct. 4, an allegedly inappropriate post made on Snapchat by a student of the Ohio Valley Career and Technical Center (OVCTC) was reported to the Adams County Ohio Valley School District (OVSD) office. This post, featuring an empty hallway with the caption “Run for your lives”, was reported to law enforcement officials at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office Sunday, Oct. 6.
Upon review, it was determined by OVSD Safety Director Mike Parker and Adams County Sheriff Kimmy Rogers that the post was not a direct threat to any of the students, staff, or faculty at OVSD schools, and classes were not cancelled or delayed Monday, Oct. 7; even so, the district’s schools in West Union – the OVCTC, West Union High School, and West Union Elementary School – reported significant impacts on student attendance, with up to half of all OVCTC students listed absent that day. The student suspected of making the post was taken into custody by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, and faces charges of inducing panic.
“There was no direct threat presented to us,” said OVSD Superintendent Richard Seas. Mr. Seas explained that there was no need for a notification concerning the post to be sent out the morning of Oct. 7 before school, according to Safety Director Parker and Sheriff Rogers’ assessment, but did note that a message to clarify the situation was sent out to parents later that evening.
“If at any time they had said there was a direct threat, school would have been cancelled,” Seas explained. “I’m hoping that the public trusts that we’re doing (all of) the things we need to do to keep children safe. We’re doing the best we can with the resources that we have, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.” He continued to praise the diligence of Mike Parker, the district’s Safety Director, who promotes student safety and investigates potential threats such as these.
According to Parker, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office was informed of the inappropriate post at approximately midnight Sunday, Oct. 6. The post originated from Snapchat, but it had also been screenshotted and shared on Facebook by this time. Adams County Sheriff Kimmy Rogers and Safety Director Parker combed through the data into the morning, and the suspect – a young man in 11th Grade at the OVCTC – was taken into custody that same morning (Monday, Oct. 7) by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department, charged with inducing panic.
“One message that I’d probably want to drive home is how to report anything (found) over social media, whether it’s perceived as a threat or it’s a direct threat,” said Parker. “The first thing that a person has to do is contact law enforcement – not take it into their own hands, and then contact law enforcement. In this case, it was already so far out there, and so far misconstrued before it got to us, that it was a web of everything trying to get through to factual information.”
According to Superintendent Seas, it was reported to him that about 50% of students were in attendance Monday, Oct. 7 at the OVCTC. Roughly 67% were in attendance at the West Union Elementary School, and 61% were in attendance at West Union High School that day. Other schools in the district – Peebles Elementary School, Peebles High School, North Adams Elementary School, and North Adams High School – were slightly affected as well, reporting 89 to 93.5% of students in attendance on Monday. Extra deputies from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office were assigned to the schools while investigation into the matter continued.