Investigation continues into 'hit list'

A Silver Springs girl confessed she planted a second threatening note at Silver Stage High School Thursday but denied she was responsible for a "hit list" found in a classroom Wednesday morning, an official said. Wednesday's note prompted officials to lock down the building and its more than 400 students for the entire day.

Lyon County Sheriff's Capt. Allen Veil said the girl told officials she left the note in a girls bathroom in the hopes that staff would shut down school.

"She thought it might be a cute way to get out of school," Veil said.

The author of the new note was quickly determined, and there was no lockdown as a result, he said.

Investigators continued to question students to determine who was responsible for the Wednesday note listing 51 students and staff members and threatening, "These will die" with the dates "October 4-13."

A teacher's aide found the folded note on the floor of a first-period classroom about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Veil spent Thursday morning giving Lyon County commissioners an update on Wednesday's lockdown.

Commissioner Bob Milz asked Veil if he thought the note was prompted by a recent series of school shootings across the U.S. in which seven people and two perpetrators died.

"When the media advertises this nationally on the news, it invites copycats," Milz said.

Veil responded the note was "well worn" as if it had been carried around for days or weeks, which indicates it began before shootings in Colorado on Sept. 27, in Wyoming on Sept. 29 and in Pennsylvania on Monday.

Yet, in spite of the condition of the note, he said, law enforcement took it seriously.

"That's why we did the lockdown," he said.

Veil said the note contained the names of 40 students and 11 faculty members and was written in at least two separate handwritings indicating there was more than one author.

No weapons or other items related to the threat were found during a search of lockers and backpacks on Wednesday.

School reopened Thursday on schedule with two deputies stationed there throughout the day.

He said investigators are questioning students who use the classroom in which the note was found to include the 29 students in the classroom at the time of the discovery. He also said the parents of those students will be contacted in the coming days.

The parents of the students listed in the note were contacted Thursday, he said.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.