PALMER -- Security was beefed up at Colony Middle School in Palmer on Friday because of threats swirling around a couple of students who harassed a moose that later died.

The students themselves, a pair of eighth-graders, have been suspended, though Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District spokeswoman Catherine Esary refused to say why.

The students had been accused of yelling at the moose that wandered onto their school yard. There were also reports they might have thrown sticks and stones at the animal, but those reports could not be confirmed.

An Alaska State Trooper called to the scene after the moose died early in the week reported there was "no evidence that the kids did anything to cause its demise," Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Despite that, reports have proliferated on the Internet that the students were responsible for killing the moose. The most flagrant among these had the students chasing the moose into a wall headfirst, which caused it to break off an antler that then entered the animal's skull. "There was no way an antler went into its head,'' Peters said, noting that the yearling bull lacked antlers. It had only nubs.