We are less than a week into the school year and there has already been a threat of violence at one of our Indiana County school districts.
State police say a 15-year-old Blairsville boy who is not a student at Blairsville High School posted a threat on Snapchat against the school, prompting a lockdown yesterday. Students who had seen the post reported it to Principal Allan Berkhimer when they arrived at school. State police were called to the school and investigated, but found nothing alarming.
The teenage suspect will be charged with terroristic threats before Indiana County Juvenile Probation. He did not have access to any weapons.
In a post on the school district’s website, Berkhimer and Superintendent Jeffrey Soles said they found no viable threat to the building, and “At no time was any person in harm’s way.” While they noted that the comments were inappropriate, they said the boy was not on district property, there was no time line for carrying out a threat, and no specific person was listed as a target.
Both the school district and the police called on students and community members to continue to report any suspicious or threatening activity.
Here’s the link to the letter from Berkhimer and Soles regarding the threatening Snapchat post:
http://www.edline.net/files/_rbJsQ_/f895234499fc627a3745a49013852ec4/SCAN_08_27_18…09_53_28.pdf
