One student who attends Owensboro High School and another who attends Apollo High School have been charged following a threat made on Snapchat, according to the Owensboro Police Department.
Editor’s note: The juvenile who is a student at Owensboro High School student was taken into custody at Emerson Academy while attending a class. OPD originally reported that the student attended Emerson. This post has been updated to reflect the correct information.
According to a release, OPD was notified on September 18 “that a school shooting threat was made through the social media platform Snapchat.”
An OPD School Resource Officer notified the OPD Criminal Investigations Division and detectives responded, according to the release.
“Juveniles from Emerson Academy and Apollo High School were interviewed and it was determined that a threat had been made against Apollo High School and a faculty member,” OPD said.
The OHS student was charged with second-degree terroristic threatening and the AHS student was charged with second-degree terroristic threatening (conspiracy). Both juveniles were taken into custody and transported to Warren County Juvenile Detention Center.
OPD worked in conjunction with Daviess County Public Schools Police, Apollo High School, and Owensboro Public Schools to identify and charge the juveniles responsible.
“We urge all community members to actively engage in communicating with our youth that these types of threats are not a joke or funny in any capacity and will have severe consequences. OPD and school officials take these threats seriously and will take swift action against those who threaten the safety of our children,” OPD said.
Daviess County Public Schools Public Information Officer Maddie McClure shared the following statement with Owensboro Times:
“Upon learning of potentially threatening comments made on social media between a student in another school district and an Apollo student, Apollo Administration and the DCPS Police Department immediately began an investigation. We are thankful for the quick response by the DCPS and Owensboro Police Department working together to resolve this matter. Student safety is our top priority. We want to continue encouraging families to talk to their children about the serious nature of making threats and the importance of immediately reporting any threat or issue of concern to law enforcement or a trusted adult.”
Owensboro Public Schools released the following statement to OPS families:
“The district has been made aware of a Snapchat post making its rounds on the app. The post has been addressed by our school resource officer and there is no threat to our school at this time. We wanted to make you aware in the event your child received this post. Again, we can’t stress enough the importance of speaking to your child about the consequences of making or sharing threatening statements, especially on social media. We take the matters very seriously and will continue to do so. Thank you.”
