A community is on alert after a student makes a threat of violence at Prophetstown High School. When police investigated, they found the threat without merit.
Now they're using the opportunity to help stop violence or threats of it at the source by bringing the issue of bullying out into the open and trying to prevent another incident like Sandy Hook from happening.
"It's an evil, evil animal, and it will get to the point where someone's going to take a gun to school and that's the last thing we ever want," Prophetstown Police Chief Michael Fisk says.
Fisk knows firsthand what bullying can lead to; he met survivors from the Columbine shootings of 1999, and says those conversations changed the way he approached violence in schools.
"They said the reason that happened was pure bullying, they tortured these boys," he says, "We never want that."
So after a threat to the high school, Fisk and school officials are going to classrooms to talk to students about bullying and opening up their doors to them whenever they want to talk.
"It could be self-esteem issues at home, maybe there's problems with parents, it's things that are out of our control but we at least try to help the kids while they're at our school," Fisk says.
So will it work? Parents think so.
"The more you talk to children the more you educate them about bullying, hopefully that will make a difference in our schools," Parent Beth Snyder says.
"Anytime anyone talks to a child about bullying, as to why that's a bad thing, is a step in the right direction," Parent Tya Boucher says.
Trying to stop one problem before it turns into something much more.
"The worst scenario with bullying is the child can't handle it anymore, and he'll take lethal choices upon himself which we don't want," Fisk says.
Fisk says he along with school officials plan to host a public round table for further discussion on the topic.
