116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Home / News / Crime & Courts
No shooting threat to Cedar Rapids schools after police investigate social media post

Feb. 22, 2018 11:17 am
CEDAR RAPIDS - A social media post thought to be a school shooting threat prompted Cedar Rapids police to respond to schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District on Thursday.
Police determined there was no threat to Cedar Rapids schools.
The author of the four-day-old social media post did not intend to make 'any sort of threat,” according to a school district statement.
'Police officers made contact with the individual that posted the photograph,” district spokeswoman Akwi Nji said in an email. 'It was determined that the post was made several days ago and that the individual intended to make a political statement rather than make any sort of threat.”
The individual involved is an adult male and not a high school student.
Cedar Rapids public safety spokesman Greg Buelow said officers were called to several schools in the city after 'individuals or students” approached a school resource officer or school administrator concerned about the content of a social media post.
Buelow said the individual who posted the photo - a graduate of a Cedar Rapids high school - didn't threaten any school, but the social media post was construed by some as a threat.
The social media post was shared by several Cedar Rapids students from multiple district schools, Nji said. She declined to name schools where police responded.
l Comments: (319) 398-8238; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com
The Educational Leadership and Support Center for the Cedar Rapids Community School District at 2500 Edgewood Road NW. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)