OHS dealing with two threats to shoot up the school

OOLTEWAH, Tennessee(WDEF) – More than two months after Ooltewah High School made national headlines with a sex scandal involving the boys basketball team, the school is once again in the spotlight.

This time school officials are dealing with a written threat to shoot up the school.

While Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond spoke to Ooltewah High School students Monday morning about the roll of law enforcement, his deputies were actively investigating a disturbing note that was left inside the boys bathroom this past Friday.

“It indicated they would shoot up the school on March 1at,” said Lt. Shaun Shepherd of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

On Saturday, the Hamilton County School District emailed an audio alert to parents.

Students who attended Sheriff Hammond’s presentation told News 12 the threat did cause some concern for their parents.

“My mom was a little upset about it. She said as long as you’re comfortable, I will be comfortable with you and where you are. She told me what to do whenever a shooting is happening to keep us safe,” said OHS Junior Riley Cain.

“I actually didn’t hear of it until my mom told me on Friday. She was slightly concerned, but as time went on, she got the email and she became less concerned,” said OHS Junior Shania Wooden.

On Monday, a second threat with the same message was found written on a school wall.

The Sheriff’s Office plans to increase patrol in and around the school to make sure nothing happens. At the same time, investigators will continue to search for the person who made the threat.

“We take all threats like this to be real until we prove otherwise. So what we did was initiate a parallel investigation with the school system along with the sheriff’s office to determine who actually wrote the note,” Shepherd said.

So far, no suspect has been identified.