From staff reports
HOOVER — Nearly 600 students are absent today at Hoover High School, following yesterday’s discovery of notes in school bathrooms allegedly threatening suicide from one student according to a report by Carol Robinson of AL.com.
According to a school email, absent students will be excused with a note from parents on Tuesday.
The letters, found Monday according to emails sent to Hoover High School parents obtained by The Tribune, were the work of a single student, school officials said. Students remained home today, however, despite the school identifying the student they believe composed the notes. The notes were identical and found on all three levels of the school building. They indicated the student was depressed and threatened to commit suicide at school today, the report said.
School authorities said no weapons were found and no threats were made to anyone other than the student.
Hoover High School principal Don Hulin kept parents informed of the investigation with an email each evening. Once the person responsible was identified, a letter was sent Thursday to inform parents.
“A student has admitted to placing the notes found in the bathrooms this week,” Hulin’s email read. ” The apparent motive in this situation was to bring awareness and assistance to students who may be going through tough times – and possibly contemplating suicide. Obviously, this was the wrong way to go about bringing awareness to these issues.
“However, through this process, we have identified some students who do need this help and were able to provide them some assistance. Bottom line, I want everyone to know that my goal as principal and the goal of my faculty and staff is to protect and care for all of our students.”
Parents were told school would be open today, but some parents felt the need to keep their children home.
School spokesman Jason Gaston told AL.com today’s absenteeism is unusually high. “Certainly many parents chose to keep students home because of the note found earlier this week – and we respect those decisions made by parents,” he said. “We are so fortunate that a resolution was reached yesterday as a direct result of excellent investigative work on the part of the Hoover Police Department and Hoover H.S. Principal Don Hulin and his administrative team.”
Hulin’s email contained information of a note found this week in a girls’ bathroom, but simply said the student responsible would be dealt with accordingly.
Hulin praised the school resource officers involved, ” Our school resource officers must be commended for their tireless efforts in this process; they were phenomenal. Faculty and staff and especially our students proved extremely helpful throughout this situation,” the email read.