Cloquet High School students resumed classes Friday after closing on Thursday due to vague threats of violence toward the high school. All school or community activities scheduled at the Cloquet High School were cancelled.
Classes would go on as regularly scheduled on Friday, Superintendent Ken Scarbrough said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
"We swept the entire building [Thursday] looking for anything suspicious and found nothing," he said. "We checked doors, lockers and closets and we are confident that we have a safe environment for students."
Students, teachers and staff had heightened police presence, however, Scarbrough reported. The school currently has 730 students in grades 9-12, 39 teachers and 85 staff members.
School officials have been working with the Cloquet Police Department since Tuesday regarding a non-specific threat that was targeted at the Cloquet High School for Thursday, April 12. The threat did not target any particular person or group of people, and no means of carrying out the threat was specified.
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In consultation with the Cloquet Police Department, the decision made on Tuesday was to hold school as usual but have an increased presence of police officers beyond the usual staffing of the school resource officer.
Last evening, during a normal security check of the high school, the custodial staff noticed some doors had been tampered with. The doors were secured.
"However, we made the decision to close our high school today and work with the Cloquet Police Department to make sure our building was safe and secure before allowing our students and full staff to return to school," Scarbrough said in a press release. "Around 8:30 this morning, we started a security sweep of the building."
The police are continuing their investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Cloquet High School Principal Warren Peterson at 218 878 3024, or Cloquet Police Chief Wade Lamirande at 218 879 1247.
