HUTTO – The student whose hoax caused Hutto High School to hold students in class on Tuesday, Jan. 24, while social media buzzed with anxious parents fearing the worst, has been has been identified by the school and is facing disciplinary charges. Since the perpetrator is a student, no other details will be released to the public.
Hutto Independent School District Police Chief William Edwards said that the case is considered closed.
page 1
“This is now being handled administratively. It was a false hoax by a Hutto High School student and appropriate disciplinary action has been applied,” he said.
According to Edwards, the first tip regarding the event came at 9:16 a.m. and was a lead from the Anonymous Alerts app. The second contact came in at 10:23. He said security worked through the leads until they were able to determine it was a false report, which was close to noon. The district communications department notified parents through their ParentSquare email system approximately 20 minutes later, informing that it was a false report, there was no danger and classes were resuming.
By then, parents were already spreading the word on Facebook that something was happening. Students were sending messages about weapons and kids being handcuffed to their parents, who were sharing the information socially.
“Somebody know what’s going on in Hutto High School?” asked a Facebook poster on Tuesday at 11:26 a.m. The post got 162 comments.
“It’s so discouraging that our parents would take information from uninformed platforms,” Edwards said. “We’ve developed protocols to give our parents real time information and they should look to that for real info.”
Hutto ISD sends emails to parents and has official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“No kids were handcuffed, strip searched, detained or put into embarrassment. When we had come to the conclusion that it was a hoax, we went back to what we are here for: education,” the chief added.
To help ease students’ minds so they could get back to learning, school principal Rhonda McWilliams addressed the students directly after
the event. “I had a conversation with the kids, I told them what happened, and let them know there was no danger, there wasn’t any danger,” McWilliams said. “The next morning, I talked to them again and told them more about the alert process.”
While this incident involved the successful investigation of a hoax, three months ago the high school security team investigated a real threat that could have turned deadly.
At a Hutto football game Nov. 3, security received a tip about a threat in the parking lot. After investigation, three teenagers were arrested and three guns were confiscated. Although the youths involved were all under 18, none were students of Hutto district schools.
A common denominator of both events was that the district security team was able to call on other law enforcement departments for support.
“We have several resources,” Edwards said. “Hutto police helped monitor the parking lot and exterior and were on standby in case they were needed (during the hoax investigation). Williamson County deputies assisted with interior security and giving a sense of safety with the kids.”
In the case of the November event, district police helped Hutto police department criminal investigators, patrol division and off- duty officers investigate and track down the suspects as they f led and hid. This type of resource sharing and collaboration depends on the Hutto ISD police department planning in advance and having their resources already in place.
“We treat every tip as the most severe outcome it could be,” said Edwards. “We have an instant action plan for all major events. We proactively plan what could happen, from the weather to manmade events.”
He credited having good taxpayer-funded resources and welltrained officers as an important part of keeping students safe.
Henry Gideon, assistant superintendent of operations, emphasized that everything the district police department does is focused on getting students back to class ready and able to learn. “We move as quickly as we can and return kids to normal business as quickly as possible,” he said. “A district is like a little city within the city. Safety is a big burden, but we’re happy to take care of our community.”
