Kiel High School: Police find no evidence of shots fired, classes likely to resume Monday

KIEL - Students hadn’t arrived to Kiel High School by the time a staff member’s report of gunshots early Friday morning canceled classes, prompted a daylong school lockdown and drew massive police presence to the rural town.

“The students never even made it into the building,” schools Superintendent Brad Ebert told media during a press conference inside Kiel City Hall just before noon Friday, with school buses rerouted to nearby New Holstein School District.

He said it was possible classes could resume by Monday.

Nobody was injured in the incident, officials said Friday. Police were investigating several possibilities surrounding the reported gunfire, including that the sounds may have been something else, such as fireworks, Kiel Police Chief Dave Funkhouser told reporters.

Still, Funkhouser said, the staff member who reported the sounds just before 6:45 a.m. was herself an experienced hunter and told police the noise had come from near the front of the school.

“We’ve trained them to report something they hear that’s unusual,” Funkhouser said, noting the staff member had done “exactly what we wanted” — call 911.

“We certainly take everything as serious as possible,” he said.

When asked if there are any suspects at this point, Funkhouser said, "Nothing at this time that we can share. We are looking at all possibilities."

In a press release sent at around 4:30 p.m. Friday, Funkhouser said law enforcement had switched efforts from response to investigation. He advised anyone with information about the incident to contact Kiel Police Department at 920-894-2211.

Police were on scene within 1 minute of the report Friday morning and helped evacuate several staff and about 15 community members who were in the building. Police were seen searching neighborhoods near the school early Friday morning. Funkhouser said officers had also swept both the inside and outside of the high school building, including going room to room. No evidence of shots fired was found.

Police and sheriff’s agencies from across Manitowoc County, including from the cities of Manitowoc and Two Rivers, were visible assisting at the scene. Officers on Friday blocked traffic both ways along Park Avenue, the main street in front of the high school. Early in the morning, a small group of officers led by a K-9 unit could be seen patrolling through residential backyards near the school.

Funkhouser said there is no reason to believe there is a threat to the public at large. 

Kiel Schools District Administrator Brad Ebert said the district intends to have classes resume on Monday.

"Our staff should be commended in many different ways for the way they handled it; our procedures and policies were followed perfectly. We train and prepare frequently for situations like this," Ebert said, noting staff from Kiel schools were onsite at New Holstein to help connect students with parents.

Ebert declined to comment on what he has to say to families who have reservations about sending their children back to school on Monday, saying the school will connect with parents after ensuring they have all relevant information.

In a Friday press release from the Kiel Police Department and the City of Kiel Emergency Government, there were police officers already in a meeting finalizing security for the school following the threats rumored to occur Friday. 

School officials diverted buses en route to school to another location and all classes were canceled.

Also, all classes at Lakeshore Technical College, about 16 miles east of Kiel, were canceled Friday. The school said in a press release a preventive lockdown was put into place around 7:40 a.m. and ended around 11:12 a.m. before the school closed for the day at 11:30 a.m. The school said the lockdown and closure were the results of "a perceived threat in the area."

Kiel is about 30 miles northeast of Fond du Lac. The city lies largely in Manitowoc County, although a small portion is in Calumet County.

RELATED:Kiel police investigate rumor of school shooting threat

One parent of a student at the district is grateful for the prompt response from police.

“Overall, I would say, regardless of what we find out really happened, very pleased with the overall response,” said Kelly Meyer, who lives in Kiel and has a child in local schools. “Because it is a scary situation that your kids could be at a school when you see all over the news now what’s going on in schools across the country.

"Just the fact that so many law enforcement communities responded so quickly and have done their best to make all of our kids safe, the staff safe, and while they were just locking everything down,” Meyer said.

Meyer said his family received notifications from the school district earlier that day notifying them that classes and other activities had been canceled Friday. 

“We just heard that there was a possible gunshot or gunshots outside the high school, and that they were shutting down the entire school district and everything and just making sure that none of the kids were around,” Meyer said.

Police in Kiel earlier in the week had investigated rumors of a potential shooting at the school planned for Friday.

"Our investigation still has not produced any credible information to validate the rumored threat of a violent act at Kiel High School or anywhere else," Kiel police said in a statement released Wednesday on Facebook.

"At this time our investigation is still ongoing but I can state that we have found no evidence to validate any of the rumors about threats to commit any acts of violence at Kiel High School or anywhere else for that matter," Funkhouser said in the post.

He said it was possible that the increased police presence at the schools since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, may have fed the rumors, but the Kiel Police Department "immediately threw a lot of resources at it" to find the source of the rumors. 

"Everyone we spoke to has said they've heard it from someone else," he said.  

Responding to questions on the Facebook page on Thursday, he added: "The person who reported this to our PD is an adult citizen of Kiel who heard about a rumor of a school shooter and he immediately came to the PD to report it to us. Chief Dave"

Mike Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.