Updated: Novi High School Put in Secure Mode Wednesday

was put in "secure mode" today, according to an email from administration.

The email reads as follows:

"Early this morning, Wednesday, April 11^th, the communicated information to our School Resource Officer, Jeremy Stempien, about a situation that took place within our community. Administration felt that it would be best to operate in Secure Mode. Secure Mode means that all exterior doors were locked and all classroom doors were locked in the event that we needed a higher level of security. Our school day operated as normal with minimal disruption to the educational process. We thank you for your continued support."

The school was not put into a lockdown level of security, which would have restricted student travel within the school.

Lt. Keith Wuotinen of the Novi Police Department told Novi Patch that the "situation" referenced in the email had to do with an indirect threat involving a student at the school. An indirect threat, Wuotinen said, means the threat was not communicated directly to the student but to a third party about the student.

Novi Chief of Police David Molloy told Novi Patch that the situation involved a domestic dispute between a student's parents.

"The husband was having some suicidal thoughts, and he was going to go talk to his son who attended Novi High School, so we contacted the school resource officer and administration, and then they chose to go into the secure mode," Molloy said.

Molloy said the student's father does not live in Novi.

"We don't believe he has the means to come to Novi, but we wanted to be prepared nonetheless," Molloy said.

Novi High School Asssitant Principal Robert Baker told Novi Patch that the school decided to act cautiously.

"We wanted to make sure that we just had our perimeters locked down — and they are every day, but we just made a double and triple check that our exterior doors were closed up and that our classrooms were closed up just in case someone did happen upon the school, that we'd be prepared and ready if anything happened just because it was kind of a strange circumstance," Baker said.

Wuotinen said the man who made the indirect threat did not show up at the school or cause any problems.

He said the police don't have any information that would suggest that the school would not be able to return to normal operations tomorrow.

"We are continuing to monitor the situation so if additional information does develop that necessitates a different course of action, we're prepared for that, as well," he said.

Several Novi elementary schools also took caution by keeping students inside for recess.