Hit list proves harmless
Potential threat turns out to be a misunderstanding
By William Lundquist
Argus Observer
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:08 AM PST
Ontario — A “hit list” that turned out to be from a classroom exercise at the Nyssa Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seminary caused a brief commotion among school and law enforcement authorities Tuesday morning, Nyssa Police Chief Lenny Elfering said.
“You react to the greatest possible danger and give a big sigh of relief when it doesn’t happen,” he said.
The crisis that never was, Elfering said, began when a student at Nyssa Elementary School found a piece of paper on the playground with 13 names on it. At the top of the sheet were the words “Hit List.” That was enough to get principals, teachers, deputies and police officers involved. The 13 students on the list, all from Nyssa High School, were called to the principal’s office and their parents notified, Elfering said. That’s when the principal realized all of the students also went to the LDS Seminary.
The students quickly explained, Elfering said, that the list came from a classroom game that involved students tapping the shoulders of other students, leading to a prize for someone, and a list of students who had been tapped, or “hit.”
Elfering, who was still breathing a sigh of relief Tuesday afternoon, said the incident served as a good drill because it put a local safety apparatus in motion needed in a real emergency.
In other public safety news, a fatal crash near La Grande was one of four fatal crashes in Oregon during the Super Bowl weekend, Oregon State Police (OSP) Lt. Gregg Hastings said in a news release. Icy conditions may have been a contributing factor in the Saturday afternoon two-vehicle crash on Oregon Highway 237 that killed one person. Hastings said three other crashes during the weekend, at Hebo, Banks and in Linn County, resulted in four more deaths. That was up, he said, from the two highway deaths during Super Bowl weekend 2007, but down from the six deaths in the same weekend in 2006.
Hastings reported a sharp decrease in driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) arrests this year compared with last year’s Super Bowl weekend. During the 2007 weekend, he said, there were 42 DUII arrests, compared with 23 this year.
The Idaho State Police (ISP) recently announced that its Sex Offender Registry Web site was ranked the sixth best in the nation by TopTenReviews.com, a technology review site.
The reviewers praised the Web site for “clearly identified violent sexual predators, an exceptional mapping function and flexible searches,” ISP spokesman Rick Ohnsman said in a news release. The reviewers also pointed to “clearly labeled profiles, large photos of the offenders and complete information about the physical description and offense information,” he said.
The Sex Offender Registry Web page, http://www.isp.state.id.us/sor_id/, is the most heavily visited location on the ISP Website, Ohnsman said, and it receives 100,000 to 300,000 searches per month.
“We are gratified to learn of this honor,” ISP Director Col. Jerry Russell said, “especially as the improvements pointed to are the results of a recent major revamping of our Web site. It is our objective to make our Sex Offender Registry Web site a location where concerned citizens can easily access information about the registered offenders in their neighborhoods.
