New death threats made to Granite Falls students

GRANITE FALLS -- For weeks, students at Granite Falls High School have been receiving threats by an anonymous person on the social media site Ask.fm.

On Friday, the School District confirmed there were additional threats made against several new students Thursday night.  The district sent out a phone alert to parents Friday morning.



This all started in mid-December when the high school also received a bomb threat.  The district held a meeting Thursday night with parents and police to talk about how this issue is being handled.

The FBI is now investigating the threats, trying to find the IP address of the user posting the threats.  Ask.fm is an anonymous site, making it difficult to track down the users.

At the public meeting Thursday night, some parents asked why it took more than two days for many parents to learn about the bomb threat to the school made on Ask.fm and why there wasn’t an immediate lockdown or bomb-sniffing dogs brought to the school.

“There is a huge lack of communication. A lot of students didn’t know (about the bomb threat) until later in that week,” parent Tammie Curry said. “I should have known there was a problem there.”

During the meeting, the school said they notified police as soon as they learned of the threats. As for a lockdown, police say they swept the school and a lockdown was not deemed necessary.

“At this point we have nothing to lead us to believe that the students and staff are in immediate danger,” acting Granite Falls Police Chief Don Lauer said.

Ask.fm is an international website based in Latvia.  The FBI is working with them to try to obtain the IP address of the user posting threats.  The district says so far, at least 62 students have received direct threats.

The district says there is increased supervision of entrance and exit doors at the school and they are thoroughly inspecting the building before, during and after school hours.

Coming up on Q13 FOX news at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., hear from the grandmother of one student threatened, and the district response to these latest developments.