Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School evacuated students Tuesday afternoon after a staff member obtained a note with a map and detailed description of a premeditated plan for a school shooting.
"It was given to one of the staff by a student," said Superintendent Carol Aenne.
According to Leech Lake Police Chief Gilbert Mitchell, the student taken into custody in connection with the threat was a 13-year-old girl.
The school, situated between Cass Lake and Bena just north of U.S. Highway 2, serves about 300 students, Aenne said. She said the students were evacuated to the southwest parking lot where buses could pick them up.
"In an effort to maintain order, students were notified that the dismissal was due to weather-related concerns," Aenne said in a press release.
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She said radio stations were also notified to alert parents to the early dismissal.
The Leech Lake Tribal Police investigated the incident.
Aenne said officers searched the school thoroughly after students were dismissed. Classes are scheduled to resume as usual today.
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School opened in 1975 in Cass Lake as an alternative school. It is named after a prominent Ojibwe man who lived in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is now a magnet school serving Leech Lake Reservation and area American Indian children in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
(Molly Miron writes for the Bemidji Pioneer, a Forum Communications Co. newspaper)
