The Butler County Sheriff’s Office said a 13-year-old girl was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats against a school in the Lakota School District.
In a press release, police said the teen posted the threat on Tik Tok. That post was soon shared on Snapchat. After seeing the threat, a fellow student called 911.
“It said, ‘I’m shooting up LJS (Liberty Junior School) tomorrow’ and ‘if not tomorrow, Tuesday’,” BSCO Capt. Rick Bucheit said.
The Lakota School District was notified and the school was closed Monday.
Investigators believe the suspect did not intend to carry out the threat and that the goal was to try and get out of having to go to school.
"After speaking to the juvenile, it was just, it seemed like it was just off the cuff. Nothing serious behind it," the lead detective on the case, Ricky Phillips, said. "Almost the old-school, pulling the fire alarm type thing."
Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller said he's surprised the suspect would do something like this.
"When we were in the principal's office this morning trying to track it down, she was not one of the people we were investigating right away. There's obviously a dark side of this and you can take on a different persona, and that's what this student did."
School threats are on the rise across the Tri-state. The Butler County Juvenile Court said there have been about four cases related to school threats over the last month. In Hamilton County, there have been seven in the past two weeks.
Not all of the charges related to these incidents are as serious as the felony charge for making terroristic threats that this teen is facing.
"All kids make mistakes. This one was just really bad," Miller said.
The 13-year-old was arraigned on Tuesday and was ordered to remain in the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center until a pretrial hearing on Dec. 28.
This story is developing and will be updated when more information is available.
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