A swirl of high school rumor and a case of disappearing graffiti caused Broomfield police to step up their presence at Legacy High School on Thursday.
It started when a custodian over the weekend found a small piece of graffiti that mentioned the tragedy at Columbine High School.
“From what I understand, it was about inch-tall lettering, and the whole thing was about the size of a person’s palm,” said Joe Ferdani, a spokesman for Adams 12 Five Star Schools.
The custodian reported the graffiti on Monday to school officials, Broomfield police Sgt. Colleen O’Connell said. When police came Monday to take the report, the graffiti was mysteriously gone, she said. But the rumors had just begun.
Speculation on the graffiti soon collided with a rumor running through the high school that Thursday – 05/05/05 – was to be senior skip day.
On Wednesday, when one student overheard a 16-year-old student predict that a Columbine-type incident might happen on Thursday, the rumor mill hit high gear.
Ferdani said there was below-average attendance at the school on Thursday, though he said that couldn’t definitively be attributed to the rumors.
Broomfield police, in addition to the school resource officer, had extra officers at the school Thursday as a precaution.
The 16-year-old student, even though he didn’t actually make a threat, was arrested for allegedly interfering with staff, faculty or students of an educational institution, O’Connell said.
“He didn’t specifically state himself that he would be doing (the attack), but he caused all this by predicting something would happen,” O’Connell said.
Despite the mayhem, Ferdani said Thursday was a fairly normal day for Legacy students.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 303-655-7735 or jingold@denverpost.com.