Police said it was likely an oversight on the boy’s part, as he had reportedly gone on a recent hunting trip and had not removed the gun from his car. The girl then took a picture of it in his car and posted it on Snapchat, along with a threat.
“We have no indication there was ever a real threat,” said John Davis of Centerville Police.
The girl was charged with making terroristic threats, and the boy was charged with illegal conveyance of a weapon on school grounds.
Police said that while monitoring for threats is a daily operation, it gets amplified in the wake of other school shootings. Police departments across the country have been on alert since Nov. 30, when a 15-year-old shot and killed four students and injured seven more at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Davis said that while these particular remarks might not have been serious, police have to take it seriously and reminded users to think before they post something.
“Once these things are put out there, it’s there forever, and you never know how it’s going to be shared,” Davis said. “Understand that it’s a crime to create that kind of panic.”
“If we find out who they are (and most of the time we do), we’re going to come and arrest them. Know that we’re going to follow up on them and take appropriate action,” he added.
Davis added that he was grateful to the students and staff who knew to report the situation to the police, saying they’d rather have a lot of information than too little.
“A lot of the safeguards that we have in place worked perfectly here. There was potential for a problem, but it seems this was an unintentional event that occurred,” he said.
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