Student arrested after social media threat towards area school district

CLARK COUNTY — Police arrested a student after an anonymous post on social media threatened a school shooting.

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This comes after six straight days of threats to buildings in Springfield.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke Tuesday about the state’s response to these threats.

On Monday, he announced a trooper would be stationed at every single school in the city for the foreseeable future.

He said parents are still so scared they are keeping kids home.

Springfield’s superintendent joined DeWine and wanted to assure parents their kids are safe at school.

News Center 7 obtained a copy of a screenshot of a frightening post Monday afternoon.

A student is being charged with terroristic threats.

News Center 7 talked to the state safety director at City Hall about the threat.

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The message to social media started out saying “Nobody knows me, but we’re shooting up the Tecumseh Local Schools.”

It turns out that the student goes to school in the district.

The Tecumseh Local School District was made aware of around 3:15 p.m. Monday afternoon. The post said they planned to shoot up several buildings in the district this week. The main targets were the middle school and high school.

The district sent an email to parents letting them know of the threat.

Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies worked quickly to find the original source of the post.

The district told said the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the FBI worked together to get the Instagram username and trace it to an email account and phone number. That led to the arrest of the female student Monday night, who confessed to what she had done. According to the district. the student is charged with making terroristic threats.

Harley Ward said when she was growing up these types of threats toward schools were not like it is now.

With a two-year-old daughter, she is thinking of preparing for her school in this day and age.

“It makes my mama heart sad like having to send her to school cause I know that it’s coming up here shortly,” Ward said.

A parent leaving the middle school said when he saw the message he felt like it was a prank, and not a good one at that.

DeWine said officials are taking these threats seriously.

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