Police and school officials in Nashua, New Hampshire, held a public forum Wednesday night to soothe concerns about a Death Note-inspired notebook discovered last week at a local high school.
The list, found Oct. 9 at Nashua High School North, reportedly contained the names of 17 students, along with a description of how and when they would die. In Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s hit manga turned anime and live-action movie franchise, a high school student sets out to rid the world of evil using a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.
"I assigned multiple detectives to this; it is an ongoing investigation," Nashua Police Chief Andrew Lavoie said Wednesday, as reported by The Telegraph. "We don't feel there's an ongoing safety issue."
Wednesday's forum followed private meetings earlier this week between school administrators and the parents of students whose names appeared on the list. School district Superintendent Mark Conrad announced earlier in the week that the appropriate action has been taken against the student who possessed the book. Lavoie added Wednesday that no arrest has been made.
Parents have been critical of the school's response to the discovery of the "death note," with some saying students new about the list before administrators became involved last week. Some attendees at the forum reportedly asked whether the police could monitor the suspect's computer activities and movements.
Because of privacy policies, no information about the student's identity, or any disciplinary action taken by the school, has been released.
“Death note” scares occurred with some frequency in the United States between 2008 and 2010 — an attempt to ban the manga in Albuquerque Public Schools failed in 2010 — but have died down more recently. Still, this is at least the fourth incident to occur this year; the most recent was in June in Connecticut.