Hancock County parents keep kids home after middle school student threatens shooting
A middle school student was taken into custody late Sunday night after threatening a shooting at Hancock County School District, said Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam.
The male student is being held in juvenile detention, Adam said.
Even if a person making threats doesn’t have a means to get a gun, Adam said, his department takes any threat seriously.
His department investigated the threats made over the weekend on Snapchat social media.
“If you go to Hancock don’t go to school tomorrow,” the post said, “I’m a shoot it up.”
Seeing that post had many parents decide to keep their students home Monday, said Melissa Saucier, director of public relations for the district, despite recorded phone calls from the school district that a suspect was in custody.
The district and the sheriff department were confident the student acted alone, she said. If the person who made the post hadn’t been taken into custody and was still at large, she said, the district would have informed the parents not to send their children to school.
Parents took to Facebook Sunday to share their concerns and in some cases complain the district wasn’t providing more information.
“We want to make sure we provide them with the information we’re allowed to,” Saucier said. “We don’t want to impede any investigation,” she said.
The student will go before a youth court judge, she said.
The district used multiple methods of communication with the parents, staff and students, she said.
Saucier said the district put out a letter at the end of last week, following the shooting at the Nashville school where four people were killed. The district asked the parents to please have conversations with their kids about what to post on social media, she said.
The district also plans to send a video out this afternoon to explain the communication protocols.
This threat comes a month after a handgun was found in a student’s backpack at Hancock County High School. At that time the district said: “The Hancock High School Resource Officer and school administration immediately implemented the Hancock County School District safety procedures and the incident was quickly investigated and resolved. There was no threat to any students.“
This story was originally published April 3, 2023 at 12:24 PM.
