A week ago, administrators at Steamboat Springs Middle School may have averted a tragedy.

On May 7, school officials were notified that one of their students had “threatened harm and actions that may or may not have included harm to others,” according to a letter sent to parents by the district the following Monday, May 8.

Within moments of receiving the information, deputies with the Routt County Sheriff’s Office, who had also been notified, began investigating the alleged threat and, by Sunday evening, had taken the juvenile in question into protective custody to be evaluated by medical professionals at Mind Springs Health.

This was a positive ending to a story that might easily have played out in a very different way, and in thinking about it, we can’t help but wonder how much of the needless pain and anguish associated with schoolyard massacres and teen suicide might have been avoided had someone come forward and voiced a concern.

Read more at Steamboat Today.