"Friday the 13th" came and went at Montezuma-Cortez High School without any of the violence rumored to have been planned, but the school-day was far from average.

Several Cortez Police officers patrolled the halls and parking lots. Five of the seven entrances were locked and the remaining two were closely guarded with only students and staff allowed to enter. Nearly half the student population was absent and a quiet, heightened awareness cast a pall over those who were present.

"We’re trying to make it as normal as possible," said MCHS principal Mark Rappe. However, he said, next Friday, April 20, will likely be a difficult day as well because it was also rumored to be a target date for violence in conjunction with the two-year anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

MCHS senior Tony Todd said the presence of the officers was the most apparent difference and stated he believed that the rumors were probably nothing more than talk.

"I think there’ll be more problems next week because of Hitler’s birthday," Todd said Friday afternoon.

Rumors of violent threats and a possible "hit list" led to the search of three sophomore students’ homes Tuesday afternoon, and police and school administrators are still sifting through potential evidence. No arrests have been made. The students’ names have not been officially released, although they are widely known within the school and community. All three are white males.

Although the alleged hit list never materialized, officers did seize several items from two of the students’ homes that raised questions about their intentions.

Among the seized inventory were six guns, including three .22 caliber rifles, an SKS rifle, a black powder rifle and a .32 caliber pistol. Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said the weapons were not illegal and had been seized as a precautionary measure.

"Most of those I’m sure will be returned ... probably after the 20th," he said.

Also seized was an American flag found hanging upside down, bearing holes and satanic symbols. Various papers and notebooks containing poems and writings about death and anger were collected but none were specific to any individual targets or plans to carry out violent acts, Lane said.

"Most of that stuff was taken because it gives you an indication of where that person is mentally. There was some pretty gross stuff written down."

Computers and software counted for the majority of the seized items, including games entitled "Evil Has Survived," and "Doom II." Lane said one of the disks retrieved also contained information about bomb-making.

"The website that you can go to and get bomb instructions ... it was on a disk and the disk has a virus so we haven’t been able to look at it yet."

A computer and some software were taken from the third student’s home, but Lane said there didn’t seem to be anything particularly troubling in that individual’s belongings.

The computers have been sent to the Denver office of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to retrieve any evidence that might be on the hard drives.

The third student was in attendance at school Friday, however the other two were asked to stay home, in part for their own safety, said Rappe.

"We asked them to stay home simply to help things calm down," he said. There has been no disciplinary action taken on behalf of the school, nor is there expected to be.

"I have no cause," Rappe said reiterating that no physical evidence of a hit list or plan has been found.

Rappe said his main concern now is the "healing" process and reestablishing trust among students as well as getting the three students implicated in the threats integrated back into the school’s social atmosphere.

"We’re going to have to work on the Golden Rule — treat others as you expect to be treated," Rappe.

Lane also said it didn’t look as though any legal action would be taken against the students.

"That’s something that, as soon as the investigation is over, we’ll have to compile all the information and turn it over to the DA and see what he wants to do," he said. "At this point in time I don’t see any arrests being made. We have come up with no hit list on paper. The only thing that we’ve ever had is a rumored list. I would hate for anybody to think that that was an official anything."

According to the affidavit requesting the search warrants, the school resource officer began hearing rumors of a hit list in November of 2000. A Feb. 12 locker search did not turn up any evidence, and on Feb. 27 the officer contacted the students implicated and again came up empty handed.

However, on April 6, the officer received information from anonymous sources that something might take place on April 13 or April 20.

Since then, several confidential informants shared with authorities the rumors of alleged planned threats to kill several "jocks" at MCHS.

According to the affidavit, one alleged plan was to "lock the doors during a Pep Assembly and kill ‘jocks,’ " taking a select few "to a special room to kill them and mutilate them."

Another alleged plan was to "block all the exits and start shooting everyone in the halls. Two or three individuals would be on the roof to shoot people exiting the school."

According to the affidavit, one confidential informant claimed to have seen a picture of a bomb downloaded from the Internet. The student allegedly then told the informant that he had made bombs before at a friend’s house.

County Court Judge Chris Leroi said he had not arrived at his decision to issue the search warrants without considerable thought and substantial reasoning.

"You’re very concerned about trampling somebody’s constitutional rights to privacy," Leroi said. "Then of course with something like this — balancing that and protecting the public from a Columbine-like or San Diego-type incident that could be a risk to lives — it’s a real delicate situation. You have to kind of strike a balance there."

Rappe said any student who stayed home Friday because of the threats will not be penalized in any way although he hoped next Friday there would be higher attendance.