HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – Superintendent Dr. Michael Richards is organizing a panel to discuss safety concerns in Harrisonburg City Public Schools.

Plans for the panel were announced at the Harrisonburg City School Board meeting Tuesday night. It will be an opportunity to answer questions for HCPS parents regarding school safety following social media threats against the school division last month.

The panel will take place in the auditorium of Rocktown High School. Although a date for the panel has not yet been set, Richards said he and staff are considering an evening during the week of Oct. 21.

The threats specifically targeted Harrisonburg High School and Wilson Memorial High School in Augusta County*, and prompted both HHS and Rocktown High School to close for a day. An investigation by the Harrisonburg Police Department led to the arrest of a 16-year-old student on Sept. 16.

The incident was similar to a series of threats that caused schools across the nation to close early in the semester, including neighboring school divisions in the Shenandoah Valley. The threats circulated on social media in the wake of the Appalachee high school shooting in Georgia, which killed two students and two teachers.

*An earlier version of this story reported Wilson Memorial High School as being in Staunton. This was an error, as Wilson Memorial High School is located in Fishersville as part of Augusta County Public Schools. This detail has been corrected, and Rocktown Now regrets the error.