11-Year-Old Girl in Custody After Cloquet School Threat

Cloquet Police Say There Is No Concern About School Safety Following Investigation

CLOQUET, Minn. – An eleven year old girl is in police custody after she made a threat of violence referencing Cloquet Middle School and High School.

Cloquet Police say all is safe at the school following their investigation Wednesday morning.

Late Tuesday night, Cloquet Police were made aware of a social media post containing a violent threat to Cloquet schools. Police investigated and quickly found the student responsible.

The threat was made by an eleven year old girl who is a student at Cloquet Middle School.

Police seized an airsoft pistol from the girl’s home during the investigation.

The girl is being held at the Arrowhead Juvenile Center on a charge of Threats of Violence.

Police say all threats to schools, event those meant as jokes, will always be taken seriously.

“If you are thinking about doing this as a joke, it will be investigated and if you are caught, you will be held accountable,” said Commander Derek Randall of the Cloquet Police Department.

Cloquet schools didn’t have additional police presence today because the investigation wrapped up so quickly.

District leaders say all threats to their schools will be looked into.

“Our mindsets have started to change over the last decade,” said Ken Scarbrough, Superintendent of the Cloquet School District. “Many years ago we’d look at that and think somebody’s goofing around, this isn’t going to be us, but now we have to take every threat we receive seriously.”

Social networking is a big part of students’ life and school officials encourage students to report anything troubling they see on any site.

“What’s happening on social media is reality for a lot of our students and to be able to decipher whether a threat like that is real or not is not easy for our students when it’s through social media,” said Robert Gagne, a school counselor at Cloquet Alternative School.

Cloquet schools have resources available for students struggling with violent urges or other issues and they encourage students to always seek help when they need it.

“We’re not out there to punish kids, we’re out there to support kids and help kids and if somebody’s troubled to the point where they’re making that kind of threat on the media, we need to provide consequences but we also need to provide support for these students,” said Scarbrough.

Authorities tell us there is no concern about safety at Cloquet Public Schools following Tuesday night’s incident.