The school district where former President Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attended high school put out a statement in an attempt to quell “any common misconceptions.”
Bethel Park School District updated its statement on Crooks Saturday, stating that he was never a member of the school’s rifle team and that there is no record of him trying out. The team’s coach “does not recall meeting him,” the statement reads.
“It is possible that Crooks informally attended a practice, took a shot, and never returned,” BPSD wrote. “We don’t have any record of that happening.”
Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in May 2022.
Classmates said he was bullied in high school over his appearance, but the district said according to its records, “Crooks excelled academically, regularly attended school, and had no disciplinary incidents, including those related to bullying or threats,” adding that he was a “quiet, bright young man who generally got along with his teachers and classmates.”
The district also disputes that Crooks ever threatened violence against the school, stating an incident from 2019 was investigated, addressed and the student involved was disciplined.
“It had no connection whatsoever to Thomas Crooks.”
One peer at Bethel Park High School said Crooks was an avid gamer who enjoyed building computers.
School counselor Jim Knapp recalled seeing Crooks sitting alone during lunch. He would occasionally check on the isolated boy, but he would tell him he was content by himself.
“I really do believe this young man just snapped,” Knapp told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. “He really just snapped. And evil is in the world and evil took him over.”
Classmate Max Rich told Fox News Digital that he was a “quiet” kid.
Following his high school graduation, Crooks went on to earn an associate’s degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County and worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, BPSD said.
“It would be wildly irresponsible for us to speculate on his state of mind in the two years since we last saw Thomas Crooks,” the statement concluded.
Fox News’ Rebecca Rosenberg and Reuters contributed to this report.
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