OAK CREEK — Oak Creek High School has moved to virtual learning Friday after officials became aware of an online threat submitted to the district's anonymous reporting tool.
School Superintendent Dan Unertl issued a state Friday morning saying, “We became aware of a threat submitted through our StopIt app. In working with the Oak Creek Police Department, and in bringing together members of our leadership team, and threat assessment team, we have made the decision, out of an abundance of caution, to move to remote learning today and close both the Ninth Grade Center and the 10-12 building."
As of now the nature of the threat is unknown.
The district will continue to work with law enforcement to investigate the incident.
School officials across the area say resources like the STOPit App play a key role in keeping students and faculty safe. Currently, the Greendale School District says they use an online Google form where students can report concerns anonymously. But they're also looking to transition to using the STOPit App.
"We can't give feedback right now with the tool that we are using, so we are considering shifting our tool," said superintendent Kim Amidzich.
Meanwhile, the West Allis-West Milwaukee School district says they use a resource called Speak Up Speak Out Wisconsin where students can call, go online, or open the app - to anonymously report a number of concerns.
"We want our learners to have access to that, whether it's themselves, or another student that feels like they're going to harm themselves or someone else," said Deidre Roemer, Director of Leadership and Learning.
The district says they also started using a system called Gaggle this year, which monitors students' use of school-provided tools which can detect three levels of harmful content.
"We have had a few this year that that thankfully we got the notice in time to intervene," said Roemer.
Oak Creek officials say they do anticipate that school will resume normally on Monday. The school cannot confirm what type of threat it was, because the investigation is still ongoing.
