Average attendance at the three Chapel Hill – Carrboro City schools on Seawell School Road is well over 90 percent. But those numbers were down significantly on Tuesday after schools officials were made aware of a threat against one of the schools.

Statistics provided by the school district show that 72.5 percent of students at Smith Middle School were in attendance on Tuesday, compared with a 96.7 percent rate on a normal day. The rates at the neighboring Seawell Elementary and Chapel Hill High School were more dramatic. Seawell Elementary has an average daily attendance of 96.4 percent but saw a 62.3 percent rate on Tuesday. Just over half, 50.7 percent, of Chapel Hill High students were at school Tuesday when compared with 94.7 percent on an average day.

The threat was allegedly made against Chapel Hill High School and a message was sent to parents of students at all three schools on Monday evening.

The message said that a threat was “recently” made against Chapel Hill High School. The message said that a man and woman were walking in the woods near the high school. The man then reportedly told “four young girls, all under the age of ten, he was going to shoot up the school on Tuesday.”

Chapel Hill Police officials confirmed that this was an “active investigation.”

The message told parents that a “noticeable” police presence would be on all three campuses on Tuesday. Chair of the CHCCS Board of Education Rani Dasi said on Tuesday that Chapel Hill High would have a “closed campus” for the day.

There have been an increasing number of threats against schools across the country in the wake of the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day where 17 people were killed. Students across the Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools District were part of protest against gun violence where students walked out of classes in March.

Dasi encouraged parents to write to Congress and “urge them to pass reasonable gun control measures, invest in mental health and gun safety research.”

School district officials said that operations were on schedule Tuesday morning.

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