A Powell Middle School student is facing expulsion after reportedly making a threat to the school last week.

Powell school and police officials say the potential threat — which also involved other students — was brought to their attention on Saturday and resolved.

In a Tuesday afternoon statement, Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis said the threat was “found to be credible,” but “there is currently no threat to the safety of students and staff.”

“Action has been taken, the threat has been averted, and the school remains safe and secure,” Curtis said.

He added in an interview that, “We got to it before anything occurred.”

“No one entered the building or anything with intent to harm our people,” Curtis said. “This was in the planning stages.”

Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt similarly said the situation “has been addressed and at this point in time there’s no longer a threat as a result of ... this report.”

Both Curtis and Eckerdt declined to share specific details of the threat, citing an ongoing investigation.

Powell Middle School administrators received a tip on Saturday about a threat that “included the potential of direct violence against our staff and students,” Curtis said.

An investigation was immediately launched by the district and Powell Police Officer Jason Pellegrino — who serves in the schools as the school resource officer.

Eckerdt said the threat was reported to have been made by multiple juveniles, though one juvenile was primarily involved. Officials contacted all the students over the weekend and, based on the totality of the situation, “deemed the circumstances safe,” he said.

“Rest assured, if we were at the point come Monday morning that we felt there was still an active legitimate threat to the students, we would have interrupted the school day as opposed to having everybody walk in that school that morning,” the chief said, adding, “But as it turned out, the PD and the school district worked together and got this resolved in time to bring the kids back to school on Monday.”

Curtis said the investigation “will likely result in both disciplinary action by the district, as well as criminal charges.” The Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees is set to consider expelling one student in connection with the incident at a special Wednesday meeting.

Eckerdt indicated that, although he considers the case to be serious, he does not believe it will result in any juveniles being charged with crimes as adults. That means any criminal prosecutions will likely take place behind closed doors in juvenile court proceedings.

In his statement, Curtis reminded parents “to have purposeful conversations with your children about the importance of reporting behavior that would indicate potential aggression and/or violence toward the school or individuals.”

“We must take ALL threats serious, no matter how small or large,” he said.

The superintendent also thanked officer Pellegrino for “expeditiously investigating the issue, and assisting in averting a potential tragedy in our community.”

It was the latest among several recent threats made at local schools. Two Lovell students were arrested and expelled earlier this month after “posting violent threats geared toward their classmates on social media,” the Lovell Chronicle quoted the superintendent as saying.

Meanwhile, last week at Cody High School, someone reportedly wrote on a toilet paper dispenser, “Don’t come to school on Friday unless you feel like dying. I’m shooting up the school,” according to the student publication CHS Bonfire. School leaders ultimately determined the threat was not credible, the Cody Enterprise reported.

The Cody district expelled one high school student last year — and the Park County Attorney’s Office filed a felony criminal charge — after he reportedly made statements about shooting up the school. The student is currently appealing that decision (see related story).

District Court Judge Bill Simpson of Cody mentioned school threats during a conversation with Park County commissioners last week.

Until joining the bench last year, Simpson said he wasn’t really aware of how many cases go through Park County’s court.

That’s “because you’ve got this significant juvenile load, all of which is important, but it’s all confidential, so people don’t hear about it and you’re not aware of how much time the court spends on that — or the county attorney spends on that,” Simpson said.

While the judge said he thinks the volume of juvenile cases has increased, “really what’s most troubling is ... just the times that we live in.”

Twenty to 25 years ago, before a series of school shootings with high casualties, some teenagers’ comments might have been seen as innocuous, Simpson said.

“Now, can you afford to ignore it? The answer’s no — you can’t,” he said. “So, you see a lot of those kind of cases that I think legitimately come before the court; you’ve got to address them. I don’t think anybody would want to say, ‘Well, I just thought they were kidding.’”

Curtis said the weekend incident was unusual for Powell schools.

Some parents questioned why the school district waited until Tuesday to release information.

“The main reason why you don’t tell people about it early is, you have a lot of information you’re sorting through to determine whether or not there is an actual threat, how severe is the threat,” Curtis said Wednesday.

He said officials were weighing a lot of information, the biggest question being: Is there an imminent threat to the safety of any of our students and staff?

Curtis emphasized that the threat was averted, and it was safe for parents to send their children to school.

“If we thought at any time that there was one shred of evidence that showed that there was a threat to the safety, we wouldn’t have had school,” Curtis said. “That was not the case.”

He added that the students involved in the incident “have a right to due process, too.”

“We can’t share the information about the students, we can’t really share information about the legal process behind it, but I guess what I’m asking for is just a little bit of faith and trust,” Curtis said. “We do take this seriously, every single time without fail, and we want to keep our people safe just as much as they want to be safe.” The expulsion hearing will be closed to the public, unless those involved ask for it to be open.

The superintendent said he wished he could share more information about the type of threat it was, “because I think that would alleviate a lot of this.”

“But I just can’t,” Curtis said. “It’s a case involving a juvenile and you won’t even get to know about it when it goes through the court system.”

—Tessa Baker contributed reporting.