By Chad Frey
Newton Kansan
A slightly heavier police presence at Newton schools Sept. 18 signaled something was afoot during student drop off.
An email to parents a few minutes after classes started told what – a social media threat against schools – led to the presence.
And while the threat was “unsubstantiated” at the time, some students were unable to deal with the anxiety of being in school following a threat. According to Carly Willis, Director of Communications for Newton USD 373, dozens of students were taken home from school by their guardians that day.
According to the Newton Police Department what started the tension of the day was an email from a Chisholm Middle School student to a principal during the evening hours of Sept. 17.
The student wrote that they had seen a social media post that of someone planning a school shooting in Newton.
However, that email came more than a week-and-a-half after two students saw an Instagram post that did not state just which Newton would be involved.
According to deputy chief Scott Powell with the Newton Police Department, students claim they saw a photo of two men with guns captioning a photo with “we are going to go shoot up Newton.”
The students who saw the post did not know who was in the photo, nor where or when the photo was taken.
“We are actually thinking it was Newton, Georgia. …. There was nothing specific about where those guys were at,” Powell said. “It was about two weeks ago. … Nobody can find it again. It just took that long for the telephone game to lead to someone to say something.”
That agrees with an email an email sent to parents at 8:37 a.m. Sept. 18, the district was unsure of the origin of an Instagram post containing the threat.
Powell said that the department has spoken with “witnesses,” including talking to students from another community in Harvey County.
“This took stages to get through,” Powell said.
The action plan created was for an extra police presence in schools Sept. 18 and continue trying to substantiate the Instagram post.
The event came on the heels of an announcement by Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson that his office filed a charge of Aggravated Criminal Threat against an 18-year-old Fort Leavenworth man, alleging he made a threat involving the Leavenworth High School. The charge was filed Tuesday evening, Sept. 17. The first court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 18.
Court documents state that on or about Sept. 17, 2024, in Leavenworth County, Kansas, Kaden Ray Bentley communicated a threat to commit a school shooting.
“Neither this community nor my office will not tolerate threats of school violence,” said Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson. “My office takes any threat seriously, especially threats of gun violence involving our area schools.”
The morning email from Newton schools to parents stated “While this threat seems to be unsubstantiated at this time, we are continuing to monitor the situation with our law enforcement partners. USD 373 encourages all in our school community that if you see something that threatens anyone’s safety, please say something. Thank you for your cooperation at this time.”