Bend police, school officials react to student’s worrisome list

Bend police and Bend-La Pine Schools officials shed more light Monday on an incident in which an 11-year-old Juniper Elementary School student allegedly wrote out a list of students to harm, prompting interviews and implementing a safety protocol.

Police said the list apparently was written three weeks ago and destroyed a short time later. The school resource officer at Juniper was able to identify the names that were on the list and inform their parents of the situation..

Parents of some students of the northeast Bend school got a letter late last week that detailed what ha taken place and said an investigation had determined “there was no imminent threat or safety concern” in the matter.

The letter sent to parents last Thursday said “a situation” arose last week in the class of Bill Shotton, a fifth-grade teacher in the school’s “talented and gifted” program, when school officials learned “a student had written an alleged list, naming students to harm.”

“We take any reports of a list like this very seriously,” said the letter, a portion of which was shared with NewsChannel 21 by a concerned parent and was written by Juniper Principal Dan Wolnick.

“A full investigation was completed including the Juniper Risk Assessment Team, law enforcement, school psychologist, parents and Bend-La Pine District personnel,” the letter stated.

“The team’s decision was that there was no imminent threat or safety concern,” it continued. “As a precaution, a safety plan has been put in place to monitor the situation.”

The letter went on to say, “It also has come to our attention some students may be sharing misleading information without complete understanding of the details of the investigation.” It urged parents to contact Wolnick or Vice Principal Maria Madden with any further questions.

School district spokeswoman Julianne Repman said, “In this situation, students really did the right thing (in reporting it), and we want to commend them for that.”

Under the school district’s safety protocol, within 12 hours of an apparent threat, they contact the parents of any students directly involved, and written documentation must be made within 24 hours.

“Any potential threat is going to be taken seriously and dealt with accordingly, systematically from kindergarten to 12th grade,” Repman said. “We have a system that’s in place to make sure all of those bases are covered and that our students have the tools that they need to get through what might be a really tough situation for them.”