BLOSSBURG - State police in Mansfield are investigating threats that allegedly were made on a Facebook page against members of the Southern Tioga School Board and district Superintendent Keith Yarger, Yarger said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Though police declined to comment other than to say the incident is under investigation, Yarger said the threats and a "hit list" against the board and superintendent had been posted on the Facebook page of a local resident.
"The person had posted that people need to sit down and talk to their kids," in light of the elementary school shooting of 20 kindergarten students Friday.
"Someone posted a message on that person's page about how bad it was about a hit list at Troy High School and also one about the Southern Tioga board members," he added.
A call to Troy School District Superintendent W. Carl Young revealed that he and his administrative team, as well as borough police, have been investigated the alleged list against Troy students for the past two days and have come up empty.
"There is no list, it is a rumor," he said, adding he had no idea who had started it.
Yarger said someone had brought it to his attention by taking a screen shot of the page and printed it out and brought it to his office.
"Some parents who had seen it didn't send their kids to school today because of it," he said.
Yarger said he placed a statement on the district's website to address the rumors "circulating on the Internet."
"It has come to the administration's attention that there may have been veiled threats that have been referenced second-hand on various Facebook accounts. The school district has been provided with copies of these potential threats," the statement read.
"At this time the school district has no actionable information and is not aware of any threats against students or staff," the statement added.
"It's just disheartening to hear such things, especially when we are trying to make things better as much as we can," Yarger added, referring to the closure next year of Liberty High School.
"We'd love to keep every single building open, but financially we can't do it," he added.
