The scare at East Coweta High School last week showed the school system the power of rumors.

Rumors started circulating at the beginning of the week that a student was bringing a gun to the sprawling campus located on Ga. Highway 154.

“The rumors started flying so fast, it was hard to keep with them,” said school spokesperson Dean Jackson.

Jackson said other rumors involved threatening notes sent to the school, and when the rumors started spiraling out of control, the system called in investigators from the Coweta County Sheriff’s Department.

Members of the department were on the campus last thursday and spend the day investigating the truth of the rumors.

“They’ve completed this investigation and found no evidence to back up any of the rumors,” Jackson said.

He did confirm that nearly one-third of the student’s population of 2,400 were absent from the campus.

“We had about 600 students who had their parents withdraw them during the day,” Jackson said.

With the specter of the Virginia Tech shootings looming in their minds, school officials did not hesitate to call law officials.

“The superintendent was well pleased with how the Sheriff’s Department handled the situation.”

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