Hit list of ‘People I Want to Kill" alarms parents of students at Lee's Summit High School

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- Lee's Summit High School Principal John Faulkenberry notified parents via email on Wednesday about a threat made to several students at the school in the form of a 'hit list.'

According to the principal, a student found the list on Monday. It was entitled, 'People I Want to Kill.'

"The Police Department has opened an investigation and is working with the school district and the child's parents to investigate the incident. The student has been removed from school," said Lee's Summit Police Dept Sgt. Chris Depue in a news release. Depue also confirmed the suspect is a juvenile.

"Based upon the initial investigation the Police Department is confident that there were no other students involved in the incident or the creation of the list, Sgt. Depue said.

In the letter to parents, Faulkenberry explains that all the families of the students on the 'hit list' have been contacted. It caught parents by surprise.

"Yes, that's why I went and got the phone real quick to see what was being said," said Sandy Rahe who lives right across the street from the school.

Rahe has two kids at the school and was alarmed.

"As I was reading, I was scared, I was terrified. It just doesn't seem like an area where we would have such thing but I guess it's going on everywhere," she told FOX 4's Judy Le.

Rahe said her kids didn't know about the hit list until she told them. But student, Katelind Strom, says word is getting out. She found out through friends.

"It's definitely scary. I don't know what to think about it because I've never really been through anything like this before," said Strom.

The district says it cannot comment on the student who made the list, but said the student was not in school when the list was discovered. They also said they could not comment on any disciplinary action.

A mother whose son's name was on the list says she satisfied with how the school handled the situation even though it took two days to be notified. Nicole Geising adds that her concern now is knowing who wrote the list so she can keep her son safe.

"Would like to know the student not because we have any ill will towards the student, but just going forward for awareness you know," Geising said. "And I hope that the student is getting help."

FOX 4 reached out to the Jackson County Juvenile Officer's office to see if charges have been filed, and we were not notified on Wednesday night, but we will continue pursuing developments with this story.

Below is the full letter from Mr. Faulkenberry:

Dear Parents,

We wanted to share information with you about our school's cooperation with a police investigation related to a potential threat directed to several individual students. Late Monday, Nov. 30, a student was found in possession of a list with the heading "People I Want to Kill."

School staff members immediately began investigating, involving our school's resource officer and the Lee's Summit Police Department. The list was turned over to school administration by the student, and the families of the students included on the list have all been contacted.

The student who created the list is not at school at this time. Please be assured that we take this type of behavior and any potential threat to our students and staff members very seriously. In addition, our school district has policies and procedures in place that address this type of significant incident. We will continue to make student safety a top priority as we address this matter moving forward.

We are continuing to work closely with Lee's Summit Police officers regarding this potential threat. Based on the school and police investigations, we do not believe at this time that any other individual has been involved in creating the list or had knowledge of this list beyond the one student. Moreover, we have no reason to believe that there is any danger for students attending school now based on the information obtained.

Please understand that due to student confidentiality laws, we cannot share the name of the student who created the list or share specifics of any discipline processes related to this incident.

As always, our top priority at Lee's Summit High School is the safety of our students and our staff.