15-year-old student arrested after Temecula high school threatened with violence
A 15-year-old student was arrested Friday in connection with several threats of violence made on social media against a Temecula high school.
Temecula police began looking into a threat made against Chaparral High School shortly after 10 p.m. on Thursday, according to Deputy Mike Vasquez, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. An additional threat was made Friday morning on the same social media site.
“As a precautionary measure, the … bomb squad was utilized, along with bomb-sniffing dogs and officers, to conduct a thorough search of the campus,” Vasquez said in a statement. “No credible threats were located.”
Officials said that investigators eventually traced the posts to a student who was booked into juvenile hall for allegedly making criminal terrorist and bomb threats. No weapons or explosive devices were involved, according to authorities, and the investigation is ongoing.
It was not clear if the student attended Chaparral or another school.
According to the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s Facebook page, two threatening tweets posted Friday detailed that harm would take place that day at 10 a.m. at Chaparral.
Students were relocated to the stadium and gym, and parents were allowed to pick up their children. After the moment passed without incident, the school decided “continuing with an instructional day is not an option.”
Authorities said the threats were not related to the rash of incidents taking place across the nation in which pranksters dressed as creepy clowns attempt to frighten passersby or terrorize people online.
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