High School Student Arrested for Threats to "Re-enact Columbine"
By: Marissa Stevens
Updated: March 9, 2012
A Siloam Springs High School student is arrested Thursday, after police say she threatened to re-enact Columbine at her school.
"We have to take every threat as something that's serious."
A 16-year-old girl posted a threat on Twitter. According to police, the tweet stated "A re-enactment of Columbine will happen at Siloam Springs High School."
Principal Charlie Abernathy says word got around fast. He found out about the possible threat around 6:00 Thursday morning, after a former student emailed him. Abernathy says he also received word from a school administrator.
About 6:30 Thursday morning, the Siloam Springs School District notified police that someone had made a post on Twitter threatening to re-enact the 1999 Columbine school shooting where two students killed twelve classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives.
"Kids need to be aware, what they are posting on Facebook or Twitter or other social media that, anybody can see it and anybody can report it," said Abernathy.
School Resource Officer Chris Salley says within one hour, the student was tracked down, arrested, and charged with felony Terroristic Threatening, all before the school day started at 8:30am.
"We knew how important it was to get this taken care of before school started, and it just all came together, just a big team effort."
Salley credits the great relationship between the school and the police department for getting the situation taken care of so quickly.
He also says the student seemed surprised to see police at her front door Thursday morning.
"I think after the student posted the threat on twitter, she realized that that wasn't that smart thing to do...While you may realize you made a bad decision later, there are consequences for bad decisions."
One Siloam Springs parent says he does not think kids realize how powerful social media really is.
"It is scary...It could be a joke but, you know, now a days with everything that's going on, I mean, everything should be taken seriously," said Marco Ramirez.
According to Abernathy, their number one priority is making sure students are kept safe.
"We're entrusted to take care of students when they're here. Parents send their kids to school expecting them to be safe, we take that very seriously."
Abernathy says the school had recently purchased a new system called Student Messenger. He says they system sent out a text, email or phone call to parents, so within 10 minutes they knew about the situation.
The school was never on lock down, but there was increased police presence just to make sure everything was okay.
The student is currently being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Bentonville, and Abernathy says there will definitely be a school punishment as well.
Her name is not being released, as she is under the age of 18.
No other students are believed to be involved with the Twitter threat.
"We have to take every threat as something that's serious."
A 16-year-old girl posted a threat on Twitter. According to police, the tweet stated "A re-enactment of Columbine will happen at Siloam Springs High School."
Principal Charlie Abernathy says word got around fast. He found out about the possible threat around 6:00 Thursday morning, after a former student emailed him. Abernathy says he also received word from a school administrator.
About 6:30 Thursday morning, the Siloam Springs School District notified police that someone had made a post on Twitter threatening to re-enact the 1999 Columbine school shooting where two students killed twelve classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives.
"Kids need to be aware, what they are posting on Facebook or Twitter or other social media that, anybody can see it and anybody can report it," said Abernathy.
School Resource Officer Chris Salley says within one hour, the student was tracked down, arrested, and charged with felony Terroristic Threatening, all before the school day started at 8:30am.
"We knew how important it was to get this taken care of before school started, and it just all came together, just a big team effort."
Salley credits the great relationship between the school and the police department for getting the situation taken care of so quickly.
He also says the student seemed surprised to see police at her front door Thursday morning.
"I think after the student posted the threat on twitter, she realized that that wasn't that smart thing to do...While you may realize you made a bad decision later, there are consequences for bad decisions."
One Siloam Springs parent says he does not think kids realize how powerful social media really is.
"It is scary...It could be a joke but, you know, now a days with everything that's going on, I mean, everything should be taken seriously," said Marco Ramirez.
According to Abernathy, their number one priority is making sure students are kept safe.
"We're entrusted to take care of students when they're here. Parents send their kids to school expecting them to be safe, we take that very seriously."
Abernathy says the school had recently purchased a new system called Student Messenger. He says they system sent out a text, email or phone call to parents, so within 10 minutes they knew about the situation.
The school was never on lock down, but there was increased police presence just to make sure everything was okay.
The student is currently being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Bentonville, and Abernathy says there will definitely be a school punishment as well.
Her name is not being released, as she is under the age of 18.
No other students are believed to be involved with the Twitter threat.
