Threatening messages discovered in a student restroom at Ferndale Middle School have prompted the district to flood its campuses with extra police officers, security staff and adult supervision, officials said. The messages reference a specific date that administrators have not made public, and the district says it will treat that day differently while keeping schools open on their normal schedule.
Ferndale Public Schools said the threatening messages were found recently in a restroom at the middle school, according to The Detroit News. District officials responded by increasing security after the threatening messages turned up at the Oakland County school, the newspaper reported. The district is now adding adult supervision and restroom checks at both the middle school and the high school.
Ferndale is also staffing additional police officers and security personnel on campus, per the same report. Schools will stay open on their regular schedule even as the added security remains in place. The threats themselves reference a specific date, but officials have declined to disclose what that date is.
Absences Excused, Tests Called Off for the Referenced Date
The district plans to put additional safety measures in place specifically on the date named in the threats. Families who want to keep their children home that day can call the school's attendance line and have the absence excused, the report notes. Ferndale also says it will not schedule tests or major assignments on that date.
Behind the scenes, district administrators are speaking with students and staff as part of the response, the same account states. Superintendent Camille Hibbler, in a letter, said administrators are working with police to identify a suspect. The district has urged people not to share rumors or screenshots online while the investigation continues.
Ferndale is encouraging anyone with information about the threat, or any other concerning issue, to report it anonymously through OK2SAY, the statewide tip line, which can be reached at 855-565-2729 or by text at 652729.
New State Law Pushed Threat Teams Into Every School
The Ferndale incident lands just weeks after a new Michigan requirement took effect mandating that every K-12 school in the state have a behavioral threat assessment and management team in place by Oct. 1, according to the Detroit Free Press. Those teams are required to include a school administrator, a mental health professional and a law enforcement official. Between 2022 and 2025, the state's Office of School Safety hosted 51 training sessions on the approach, drawing roughly 4,000 attendees, the Free Press reported, and Michigan State University's Prevent 2 Protect program offers free basic training to educators, administrators, mental health workers and police.
The Free Press also described how the process has played out elsewhere in the state. At Monroe Middle School, a pepper-spray incident triggered the district's threat-assessment process, and screeners ultimately found a low level of concern with no intent to harm. Monroe Public Schools said it had already been following threat-assessment best practices for more than three years before the new law took effect.
Bathroom Threats Have Disrupted Other Michigan Districts
Ferndale is not the only Michigan district to grapple with a threat scrawled in a school restroom this month. On September 30, a bomb threat written in a bathroom stall led to the evacuation of Kingsley Area Schools near Traverse City, according to MLive. Administrators there deemed the threat credible, evacuated the buildings and contacted the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Office.
Classes at Kingsley resumed the next day after authorities found no evidence of explosives, with officers patrolling the area as an extra precaution, MLive reported. Separately, Michigan State Police's OK2SAY tipline logged 10,777 tips in its most recent annual report, its second-highest volume since the system launched in 2014, according to Michigan.gov. The same state agency has also been working with education, health and school-administrator groups to provide behavioral threat-assessment guidance to districts statewide.
For now, Ferndale families are left watching for updates as administrators and police continue trying to identify who left the messages. The district has not said how long the added police presence and restroom checks will remain in place.
