TAYLOR MILL, Ky. -- A student was arrested Wednesday night on nine counts of terroristic threatening after promising violence against Woodland Middle School and Scott High School via social media.
The threats on Snapchat started last weekend and created enough alarm in the community that absences were noticeably up, Taylor Mill Police Chief Steve Knauf said.
“We felt that the suspect probably didn’t have the wherewithal to continue with these threats,” Knauf said. However, post-Columbine high school, you have to take these threats seriously.”
Threats promised to deliver a bomb to each high school at a specific date and time, that a shooting would happen at each school, and that females would be kidnapped and raped on the district's joint campus.
Taylor Mill police vetted each threat as best they could, concluding they were not credible.
Knauf could not release the male’s name as he is a juvenile, but said the boy confessed after police executed the search warrant late Wednesday in Taylor Mill.
Watch the full news conference from Thursday morning in the video player below.
Jess Dykes, spokeswoman for Kenton County Public Schools, thanked parents and teachers for helping the schools promote their “No. 1 priority” — safety.
“The school district’s relieved, but it’s also a sad time because this serves as a reminder that we need to speak to our youth and have dialogs about being responsible digital citizens,” Dykes said.
RELATED: When schools are threatened, untold learning time is lost
Dykes called threats like this distractions from the educational process.
“We don’t think that students realize the seriousness of the consequences when they make threats like this that incites panic,” Dykes said.
There is no indication the boy will be tried as an adult, Knauf said, noting there must be egregious violence for that to happen. He hopes parents will use this as a “teachable moment” to prevent teenagers from sending Tri-State communities into a panic.
I-Team Producer Craig Cheatham contributed to this report.
