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Violent threats put schools on alert Talk of shootings in chat room force local officials to take action By Vicki Guarino A lighthearted Medford high school tradition -- senior skip day -- is shadowed this year by threats of deadly violence. As seniors make plans for the annual but thoroughly unauthorized holiday Monday, police and school officials are promising extra patrols and vigilance in response to Internet threats of shootings at North Medford High School and Hedrick Middle School. Six or seven Internet chat room participants on April 22 talked about committing shootings at both schools on May 17 or 18, Medford police say. Those threats came just two days after the high school shootings in Littleton, Colo. No threats have been raised since then, but in response to the original statements, as many as five police officers will be on school grounds both days at all Medford schools, with extra police patrols on adjacent streets. School staffs have been told to limit student passes during class hours and spend more time outside during class changes to check on kids. Police elsewhere in Jackson County have been put on notice. The precautions augment ever-tightening security measures in local schools. Nonetheless, administrators say, they expect more absentees than normal. "I know some parents will keep their kids home and I understand that," said South Medford Principal Cynda Rickert. "That's their choice, and that's fine." Regular attendance rules will be enforced, however. "We can't tell parents not to worry," says Medford police officer Ernie Whiteman, who is heading the Internet investigation. "But we're doing our best to make schools safe. We know about the threats and we're working on it." The work has been a frustrating expedition into the world of Internet service providers, search engines and chat rooms. This is what police say they have been able to learn so far. Two days after the April 20 shootings in Colorado, a chat room opened. For perhaps a half hour, six or seven participants discussed committing shootings at Hedrick and North on May 17 or 18. All of the participants said they would commit the shootings, but none talked about their motivation. The chat room had been generated by one of the users, Whiteman says. As soon as the talk ended, the chat room disappeared. Not only is documentation nonexistent, Whiteman says, witnesses are scarce. To know firsthand what was said on April 22, a witness would have to have been online and stumble upon this one particular chat room during the few minutes it lived. In the days after the incident countless computer users said they saw the threats, or knew someone who saw them. Some said they could usher school officials to the site. Police and school staff asked hundreds of kids dozens of questions. "We probably pulled in 100 kids at North to question them," Whiteman said. "We took kids into the computer lab, but they couldn't find anything." Finally, Whiteman says, he has winnowed all the reports down to four witnesses. He is working from what those four Medford students say they recall reading on the Internet on April 22. Whiteman says he's confident in what those students recall. They don't all know one another; they didn't have a chance to talk together and concoct a story; they gave accounts that were the same in key areas. They also gave Whiteman a user name -- the coded identity of the Internet account holder who hosted the chat room. Now Whiteman is trying to match the coded name with a real identity. Last week, he got a court order to search records of Internet service company Lycos, but came up empty. Police are preparing to go on to other companies including America Online. Medford police aren't alone in their Internet investigation. Similar threats against schools are popping up all across the country in the aftermath of Littleton. Whiteman takes encouragement from a couple of cases where those who made threats have been apprehended. Whiteman says that once he has the user identified he can move ahead to find all of the chat participants. "When we do catch them, they'll have a long list of charges filed," Whiteman promises. "This has been a disruption all across the valley." He says he has fielded inquiries from police and school officials in Ashland, Phoenix, Central Point and Eagle Point. The chat room threats have grown and multiplied in a bustling rumor mill. On Friday night, for instance, word circulated that bombs had been found at North. Not only were there no bombs, Medford officials say, but this school year happens to have been the safest and least violent in many years. Principals recall perhaps a knife or two being confiscated since September, and no fights to speak of. Rumors have swept over Central Point as well. "It's `Somebody said somebody saw,"' says Crater High School Principal Ron Williams. He has heard rumors targeting many dates including May 3, 4 and 10. The community is taking threats seriously, but also trying to open a dialog with students about the harm rumors cause and the panic that can arise over literally nothing. Students like Dillon Porter at South say they feel safe in school, but have become more aware of safety issues. Dillon, a junior, says he feels more secure in school because of the police presence. He intends to go to classes Monday. At North, graduating senior Danielle Barrus winces when asked if she be in school Monday. In a roomful of Medford's top school administrators, she's reluctant to admit what she and her friends have planned for the day. "Well, it's senior skip day," she says. Danielle says she and her friends are not fearful for their safety at North. Instead, she senses a longing to leave the anxiety of Littleton behind, and enjoy some of the fun of the last weeks of school. That's a sentiment Medford schools Superintendent Steve Wisely can understand. The superintendent remembers skip day from his own senior year in Medford. "Yes," Wisely confesses, "I went fishing. I went to Willow Lake." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA