On Thursday, September 12th, the Wissahickon School District announced that a “security situation” had occurred at Wissahickon High School, an investigation was underway, and students were being dismissed early.

NBC10 reported that a bullet had been found in a classroom at the school, which has now been confirmed in a statement sent by Principal Lynne Blair to the school’s families. Blair shared that the students who had been in the classroom where the bullet was found were searched, along with the campus. No weapons or other bullets were discovered (one student was found to be carrying a bullet casing, which resulted in an unrelated second investigation), nor were there any specific threats. School will resume on Friday, September 13th, with additional police officers on campus.

Below find the statement from the principal:

Dear WHS Students, Parents, Guardians, and Staff,

I have no doubt that you are anxiously awaiting this communication. The safety and well-being of our students and staff is our top priority. In line with that commitment, I want to share as much information about today’s incident as possible. I know that you trust us with the safety of your children – and I take that responsibility very seriously.

This morning, a bullet was discovered on school property in a classroom. We followed all district protocols for these types of incidents, which include heightened supervision and safety measures. We immediately contacted the police and initiated a thorough investigation. Students were kept in their classroom while we spoke to and searched the belongings of every student who was in that classroom today. We did not find any weapon or any other bullets on any student.

In an unrelated incident, we also discovered that another student had a shell-casing in his pocket. We then initiated a second thorough investigation, again, with police and administration working in conjunction. We are very confident that the two incidents are not related or connected.

Out of an abundance of caution, we took immediate steps to ensure the safety of everyone in our building and decided to dismiss our students early so that we could conduct a complete search of our building with the police. We searched all lockers, classrooms, bathrooms, ceilings, and trashcans. I cannot thank the Lower Gwynedd Police enough; their support and partnership has been second to none. As we worked at the school, the police completed home-visits to multiple families in an effort to collect information we needed to ensure that our students and staff could feel confident returning to school tomorrow.

It is important for me to share that we are very aware of many rumors that are being spread about students who are not involved in this situation whatsoever. Please be mindful about trusting and spreading information. I will not get into each individual rumor because there are too many to address – what I can do is share this factual account of what happened and assure you that there is no threat to any specific student or staff member at WHS. Unfortunately, as we have seen in the past, social media is very quick to spread misinformation. I am sharing the correct and complete story with you here.

We will have extra police personnel on campus tomorrow and next week to ease concerns. We also encourage you to speak with your child about the importance of reporting anything unusual or concerning to an adult. Together, we can help maintain the safe, supportive learning environment that our students deserve.

Thank you for your continued trust and support.

Sincerely,

Lynne Blair, Ed.D., WHS Principal

Photo: Google