Hays Police Department
The Hays Police Department released the following press release at about 8:50 a.m. Thursday morning.
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On Sept. 18th at 6:13 p.m., the Hays Police Department began receiving multiple reports of a social media post being shared in and around Hays about a possible school shooting.
The Hays Police Department immediately began investigating these reports.
During the course of this investigation, we were able to identify the person that started sharing the message locally.
The person admitted that they saw the original message on a social media platform and were concerned by it.
While the message did have #kansas on it, there was no mention of Hays or any other community.
The person took a screenshot of the message and sent it to friends.
Unfortunately, this message quickly spread throughout the community as people began sharing the message with their friends.
While at this time we do not know who created the original message, the threat appears to be a part of a broader online trend being seen across Kansas and the country.
At this time the Hays Police Department is not aware of credible threats against any Hays Schools, staff, or students.
While there is no connection to any schools in Hays the Hays Police Department has worked alongside USD 489 school officials to notify parents and community members of the results of this investigation.
The Hays Police Department and the USD 489 Staff take every threat seriously and will continue to partner to ensure the safety of students and staff and the community.
We encourage parents to remind your child to immediately report information about any school safety-related incident(s) to administrators/staff and/or the Hays Police Department.