A report that a student was potentially planning a shooting at Baker High School turned out to be a case of misperception.

Which is not the same as a mistake.

The incident was handled properly.

Officials from the Baker School District and local police agencies responded to the report on Tuesday evening, April 16, with urgency — the only appropriate response under the circumstances.

It started when multiple students told a BHS employee that another student had been seen looking at websites selling weapons.

A school worker called police.

Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby said the student in question had been upset about something that happened a week or so earlier and had made online posts about the matter that could be construed as threats.

Police investigated Tuesday night and early Wednesday. They talked with the student involved and determined that the student was not shopping for firearms, Duby said. Police and school officials concluded there was no threat, and classes at BHS went on as usual on Wednesday, April 17.

BHS principal Skye Flanagan sent a message through the ParentSquare system just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, stating, in part, that “there is full confidence at this time that there is no reason for concern.”

Although the reporting students, as Duby put it, “misconstrued” what the other student had been doing online, they acted responsibly — indeed, bravely — in telling school officials what they had seen.

Their observations, combined with the incident the previous week involving the same student, were sufficient to suggest that a potential threat existed.

Both Flanagan and Betty Palmer, the school district’s acting superintendent, lauded the students.

“We so appreciate those who voiced concerns about the potential threat,” Palmer said. “It takes courage and leadership to step forward in these situations, and we take their concerns seriously.”

Flanagan said school officials want students to speak up when they see possible dangers.

“Their actions are what we hope for so we are better able to respond quickly and effectively to these types of scenarios,” Flanagan wrote in a second ParentSquare message Wednesday afternoon.

It is not reasonable to imagine that we can prevent every school shooting, or even most.

But if we are to stop any such disaster, it almost certainly will require someone to both recognize a possible threat and to alert people who might be able to thwart the tragedy.

It is infinitely better to misperceive than to recognize the danger too late.