Police were reportedly called after students at a Louisiana high school mistook the square root symbol for a gun drawing.
On Tuesday, at Oberlin High School, a student had been completing a math problem that required drawing the square-root sign.
Deputies say another student made a comment that the symbol looked like a gun and several other students made similar comments.
Police were reportedly called after students at a Louisiana high school mistook the square root symbol for a gun drawing
On Tuesday, at Oberlin High School, a student had been completing a math problem that required drawing the square-root sign. Deputies say another student made a comment that the symbol looked like a gun
Police searched the student’s home, where they found no guns or any evidence that he had any access to guns.
Authorities added that there was no evidence the high-schooler had any intent to commit harm to other students or faculty.
‘The student used extremely poor judgment in making the comment, but in light of the actual circumstances, there was clearly no evidence to support criminal charges,’ the department wrote.
Disciplinary action has not yet been take against the student that made the comment, but will be determined by the Allen Parish School Board.
According to new polices set by the school board, any student accused of talking about guns or school shootings will be investigated by three entities: the school board, the sheriff’s department, and the district attorney’s office.
Police searched the student’s home and concluded the high-schooler had any intent to cause harm to students or faculty. Many social media users commented that the situation was blown out of proportion (above)
This came a week after a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day, killing 17 people and wounding 14 more.
The mass shooting sparked a wave of reported threats against other schools across the country – threats that are still coming in by the day and have set local parents, students and emergency officials on high alert.
Still, many on social media thought the reaction to the ‘threat’ in Oberlin was more than a little overblown.
‘Is this what things have come to??’ one user tweeted.
‘Really? Someone thought about pursuing terrorist threat criminal charges because he said a radical (square root sign LOOKED LIKE a gun? [M]eanwhile your next school school is now thought of as a law-abiding gun owner right now,’ another user wrote exasperatedly.
One Twitter user joke: ‘Police investigate student for drawing…a square root sign. Doing his math problems. Because it looked scary,’