Dear Valor Community –
We will send a longer reflection on how we can continue to ensure that we keep our community safe later this week, but out of respect for getting everyone the most information as quickly as possible, the headline for this communication is that to date, both Valor and MNPD have found no evidence of a threat to our community. We will have regular school tomorrow – absences will be treated normally. We are grateful to the responsiveness of the Metro Police for their thorough investigation to date and commitment to ongoing investigation.
In an attempt to help decrease the spread of inaccurate information while also recognizing this is an active police investigation, here is an overview of the events we can share about the past 36 hours.
- Yesterday afternoon, we began receiving information from students and families about an Instagram post of a picture of a gun on an account called “valorrandoms”, an account that is reported to be owned by several VCP high school students. The post of the weapon tagged a different account, where the picture appeared to originate.
- Students, families, and staff reported the posting and the account to Instagram.
- Students asked the owner of the “valorrandoms” Instagram account if the posting was a threat. The owner responded it was not a threat and that they had simply reposted the picture (as that is the point of the account – to repost pictures sent to the account).
- In their investigation, MNPD has since verified that the original picture of the gun was not sent by a Valor student and is in fact from someone out of state.
- Later in the evening, additional social media messages began circulating related to the post that caused increased concern throughout the Valor community.
- Valor and the Metro Police have been investigating all of the social media for the past 36 hours. Based on Valor’s and MNPD’s ongoing investigation, there is no evidence to date that there is a threat to the Valor community.
Police were present on campus today and will continue to be present tomorrow as well. Thank you for all of the supportive communications in the past 24 hours – it takes a village to keep our community safe. We look forward to seeing our community back at school tomorrow.
With tremendous gratitude,
Alesha, Asenat, Daren, Jamie, Kendra, Lucie, Meghan, Sarah, Thomas, and Todd