Buchanan Middle School threat under investigation

Published 11:22 am Monday, May 10, 2021

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BUCHANAN – On Thursday, May 6, Buchanan Community Schools reported a student had made “some alarming threats” at Buchanan Middle School.

In a letter released to BMS families the same day, Buchanan Community Schools Superintendent Patricia Robinson said the matter was under investigation by the Buchanan Police Department.

“The safety of our students and staff is our primary responsibility and whenever there is a threat made it is elevated to the highest importance and taken very seriously.” Robinson said.

As of Monday, the investigation continued by the Buchanan Police Department.

BPD Sgt. Harvey Burnett described the threat to being reminiscent of one from the anime “Death Note,” based on the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata.

“Basically, you had a student that had a ‘death notebook,’ from what I understand of the anime series,” Burnett said. “The concern was because they were listing names of persons in there, because of the theme of the show and concerns of the names listed, we have to investigate what is the motivation in there.”

The findings from the investigation will be released to the Berrien County Prosecutor’s Office for any next steps in the incident.

“You have to be on the cautious side and learn what’s going on with these kinds of things,” Burnett said.

Burnett said the student is currently suspended from school.

Robinson said the threat was non-violent, no weapons were involved, and the threat is not active.

“The student violated our student code of conduct, and we are following the course of action outlined in our policies,” she said.