Weekend activities and enrollment remain canceled at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf pending the outcome of an investigation into a threat the school received Thursday afternoon.
In a statement released Thursday, Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services officials said OSD received a phone call threatening “‘grave danger’ to anyone associated with a school employee unless that person is fired within 48 hours.”
ODRS Communications Director Jody Harlan said the campus was locked down while law enforcement officials began an investigation into the threat.
“We have (a number of) security officers on campus right now and we have contacted the Department of Public Safety, who is notifying (troopers) in the area,” Harlan said Thursday. “We locked our gates and have had a meeting with all of our staff members to make sure everyone is doing what they need to do in this situation.”
Harlan said the school’s phone system was able to identify a name and phone number when the call was received.
“School officials believe that the threatening phone call is connected with a series of social media posts, phone calls and emails. (Those) communications alleged that a family member of (an) employee has made (a) negative social media statement about a transgender student attending Achille (Public) Schools,” the ODRS statement said.
DPS investigators are assisting Sulphur police in tracking down the owner of the telephone number from which the threat originated.
“If the (information on the) phone number is true, (the call originated) in Los Angeles, so it’s a long-distance threat,” Sulphur Police Chief David Shores said Friday by phone.
Shores said he sees the threat as an example of overreaction on social media.
“When you’re on Facebook people take things out of context, and that’s where we’re at,” Shores said. “This HateTracker bunch has (taken) things out of context and now they want to threaten people.”
Shores was referencing public backlash from threatening comments made toward the Achille Public Schools student last week and connecting that backlash to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s HateTracker program — a program whose users Shores said he believes may be behind the threat received by OSD officials Thursday.
HateTracker is a web-based app maintained by SPLC that allows citizens to report hate crimes they experience or witness.
Shores said Sulphur police and DPS investigators are in contact with law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, working to track down the owner of the telephone number used to call in the threat. Shores said he believes the number may trace back to someone connected to the HateTracker program.
ODRS officials said they would notify the public once they felt it was safe to proceed with fall enrollment on the OSD campus in Sulphur.
