Student arrested for school shooting threat

Staff Reports

A 16-year-old Douglas High School student was arrested Thursday after he reportedly threatened violence on campus on his MySpace.com Web page.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Halsey said the threats were not carried out, and the suspect was turned over to juvenile probation officials.

Halsey said the suspect threatened to shoot specific students at the school.

The initial information was brought to the attention of School Resources Officer Deputy Greg Shields by staff at 7:45 a.m.

"Several students had contacted school officials and advised them that a fellow student had made threatening statements about perpetrating violence at the school," Halsey said.

He said the student was contacted and the threat verified by accessing the student's MySpace page.

"Initially, he was cooperative with Deputy Shields, then he seemed to be in kind of a state of shock at realizing what he'd done," Halsey said.

"This appears to be an isolated incident, and the lone student involved in making the threats is currently in custody," Halsey said.

Principal Marty Swisher said because of the nature of the threat and the quick response by sheriff's deputies, the school was not evacuated.

"We're still continuing to investigate the situation, but we can't comment on specifics," Swisher said.

Because of the nature of the threat and the quick response by deputies, officials did not see a need to evacuate the school, Swisher said.

Halsey said the suspect's parents were cooperating with the investigation.

Deputies found no weapons on the student or in his vehicle, but there are guns in the home, Halsey said.

Sheriff Ron Pierini advised parents to monitor their children's access to MySpace and similar Web sites.

"Monitor appropriate conduct and statements, and please report to authorities any hazardous or potentially dangerous threats, statements or activities," Pierini said.