Report: Red Lake student arrested after threat of violence

(AP) - Officials at Red Lake High School arranged extra security after rumors that a group of students planned an assault at the school, which was the site of an attack last year in which seven people were gunned down.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the situation, reported Tuesday that a ninth-grade student was in custody.

Reports of the threat have raised fears in the community, school board member Kathryn Beaulieu said Tuesday.

"We're trying to heal, we're trying to be strong," Beaulieu said. "This sets us back, but we're doing everything we can possibly do to make sure it's a safe environment."

Rumors of another school shooting began several weeks ago, interim Principal Brent Colligan said in a letter sent to parents and guardians last week. He said three extra police officers were patrolling the school grounds.

"Every attempt is being made to find those individuals that are responsible for the disruption in your child's education," Colligan's letter said. "It is a team approach involving those listed above (the FBI and Red Lake police) when deciding if school should be in session and if a safe environment can be provided."

A call from The Associated Press to Colligan on Tuesday was referred to Superintendent Stuart Desjarlait, who did not immediately return it. An FBI spokesman in Minneapolis and the Red Lake public safety director did not immediately return phone messages.

In March 2005, 16-year-old student Jeff Weise killed a security guard, a teacher and five students at the school before killing himself. Earlier, Weise had killed his grandfather and his grandfather's companion elsewhere on the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Reservation, located in northern Minnesota.

Francis Brun, a candidate for tribal chairman, said the community should be told details of the threat.

"Your guess is as good as mine right now," Brun said Tuesday. "We can't be left in the dark forever."

Brun's son, Derrick, a security guard at the school, was killed when he tried to stop Weise.

Authorities in at least four communities reported planned assaults on schools last week, during the seventh anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

Five teenagers were charged with threatening to carry out a shooting spree at their southeast Kansas high school. Authorities arrested students for similar plots in Alaska, Mississippi and Washington.

"They were fortunate to stop them before they could carry out the threats," Brun said. "I don't know what happens to these young minds to make them so distorted."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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