Valley High School was in a brief “secure your space” alert this morning, according to Principal Troy Kelley, after social media posts circulated about the school being a target for a school shooting. The school was swept by law enforcement however classes continued.

“We just did a general sweep of the building, just a safety sweep….We had our teachers continue to teach in the classroom during that time. We just wanted to, you know, go that extra mile to just check areas like bathrooms to make sure there were not any issues,” Kelley said.

Earlier in the week, there was an email threat regarding the middle school, which was also unsubstantiated according to VPD. Since that time Valley schools have had increased police presence and have been put on heightened awareness alert.

Last night, Lanett PD sent out a statement that they were investigating a shooting threat targeted at Lanett City Schools. This morning at 10:48, LPD said the investigation is ongoing.

Other vague threats were directed at Valley on social media this week. Capt. Stacey Shirey with the Valley Police Department said that the VPD and local School Resource officers investigated the threats and found them not credible.

“[The secure you space alert] was just temporary. We received some unsubstantiated rumors that there was a threat to the school, so we went through the steps to make sure everything was in order and everything was fine,” Shirey said.

At 11:00 on Friday, CCSD put out a statement saying,”Steps were taken for safety and security measures due to rumors that have circulated from social media posts.  This began earlier in the week from a situation in a nearby school district in Georgia.”

It continued, “There have been precautionary actions such as ‘heightened awareness’ and ‘secure your area’ to investigate all rumors and alleged posts to ensure the safety of all students and staff.  School and classroom instruction is operating normally with regular class changes in place at this time.  We want to emphasize that NO CCSD school has been in a “Lockdown” situation during this period.  We are working with our SROs and local authorities to investigate any rumors that have been generated from social media.”