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Thousands of parents receive texts assuring students' safety after widespread threat

2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago Friday, September 20 2024 Sep 20, 2024 September 20, 2024 8:21 PM September 20, 2024 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE — Parents in and around the capital area were sent emails and texts Friday morning alerting them of a post circulating on social media threatening several schools. 

St. Joseph's, Denham Springs High School, and Our Lady of Mercy, just to name a few, contacted parents about the reported threat. Some schools such as St. Aloysius were not listed in the threat but were in communication with local law enforcement. 

WBRZ spoke to parents and grandparents picking up their kids after school Friday. They said they're glad their kids are safe, but upset something like this happens. 

"I figured they were safe because the school was prepared. I would. It's a shame that we live in a time where we have to deal with that," Elizabeth Quilter, who was picking up her grandkids said.

Many did thank police and the schools for recognizing it and letting them know. 

"I feel really confident in the school. I feel confident in the police and the authorities to take care of whatever issue may be going on," parent Jeff Wilson said.

At this time, no credible threat at any of the schools has been identified. No students were harmed and no schedules were majorly disrupted. 

Louisiana State Police said they were monitoring incidents nationwide involving threats of violence made against schools. However, the agency said it is not aware of any credible threats to schools within the state.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said these alleged threats were not tied to the arrest of a 13-year-old, who was taken into custody overnight for terrorizing

"We have a 13 year old Juvenile. He basically took an image of a person with a gun. He took that image and shared it and then he actually put on there some very specific things that he was gonna do to one of our schools. Being Life Oak," Ard said.

The Juvenile is in custody at the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center.

The sheriff said he wanted to make two things clear. First, that if you see threats like that on social media, report it to authorities instead of spreading it further on social media.

Second, he wants to be clear he doesn't think anyone should think it's funny or a joke.

"We have a zero tolerance for this. You think its all fun and games, You're going to find yourself in jail and we need to stop today, this is very, very serious. We cannot have this anymore," Ard said.

In a statement, the Diocese of Baton Rouge said it relayed word to each of its schools about the threat.

"This morning we were notified of a social media post threatening 17 local schools, with four of the schools being in our diocese," said Pattie Davis, the superintendent of schools for the diocese. "Each of the diocesan schools named in the social media post implemented their safety plans. School resource officers were present on campus."

Davis said her office had been assured by police that all diocesan schools were secure, and that it would notify parents about the situation. She said the diocese had been told someone had been arrested regarding the sharing of the threat but it wasn't clear whether that was the 13-year-old picked up in Livingston Parish.

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