Meara Isenberg

staff writer

@mearaannee

When junior Nicole Rewerts returned to class after an off-campus lunch on Friday, Oct. 2, she found Coppell High School in disarray. Teachers were leaving class for unknown reasons, parents were trying to pick up their kids in the middle of class and there were whispers of a gun somewhere in the school.

The rumors and speculation that followed a tweet sent on Friday morning alluded to the false belief that there was a weapon on campus, prompting a school wide investigation.

Throughout the day, Rewerts learned more and more about what was going on from her Twitter feed and her classmates but found that the information she was receiving was not necessarily true.

“People didn’t know what was happening,” Rewerts said. “The fear of the unknown made things build off of each other and become bigger and bigger, it made people scared.”

The rumors didn’t stop there. False statements were passed along to parents by their students or by other parents to fill in the gaps of what the students did not know for sure.

“Parents soon found out and the school was notified,” Rewerts said. “There was a whole panic because the school wasn’t confirming anything.”

One such parent was Kim Lucas, mom of a CHS freshman, who initially heard a story far from the truth.

“I got a call from another mother who said, ‘have you heard? There’s a gun at the high school and a bunch of kids are leaving,’” Lucas said.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, Lucas investigated further and learned that it was just a suspicion. She texted her son David to make sure he was still comfortable being at school.

“I was a little nervous and scared,” Lucas said. “Once I texted David, he’s pretty level-headed, I felt like if he thought it was safe, he was probably safe.”

Ms. Lucas decided to let him finish out the school day but kept receiving calls that day that would put any mother on edge.

“Some moms were saying that kids saw the gun or someone took a picture of the kid with the gun,” Lucas said. “I thought if that was the case, they would identify him and find him.”

Meanwhile at the high school, the student parking lot was much busier than usual at 2 p.m. Rewerts did not decide to go home, though many of her friends left early.

“I think people had a reason to be scared with everything that happened in the Oregon college the day before,” Rewerts said. “School is like your safe place. If something threatens that, I understand how people could feel scared, and I feel like they have every right to leave if they feel like they need to.”

Rewerts thinks if the school had informed students and parents of what was going on sooner, the rumors may not have been blown out of proportion to the extent that they were.

“The school kind of has the definite word and the reason this got so out of hand with people telling each other was because the school wasn’t saying anything and people didn’t know what was happening,” Rewerts said.

CHS Principal Mike Jasso released an email statement regarding the events on Oct. 6, confirming the school was never able to substantiate the rumor that there was a weapon on campus.

The buzz surrounding the incident showed just how quickly false information can spread, however Mr. Jasso also recognizes the benefits of being connected.

“Many of you, your classmates and your peers, alerted [faculty and administration] as soon as you saw those [tweets],” Jasso said. “That’s how we became aware of it and of course that’s when we began to address it.”

One of the most important things Mr. Jasso wants students to understand is that they were never able to verify that there was a weapon on campus.

“Had we been any more worried about that, we would have gone into lockdown to further secure the campus and those kind of things,” Jasso said. “The key term is that we take it seriously. We talked to, I lost count of how many kids following up on this tweet… trying to not leave any stone unturned.”