Student arrested for social media threat toward Tempe high school
Oct 8, 2018, 2:27 PM | Updated: 2:31 pm
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PHOENIX – A student was arrested Sunday and charged with three crimes for allegedly making a social media threat toward an East Valley high school last month, authorities said.
McClintock High School in Tempe received a threat from a social media post on Sept. 25.
At the time, a Tempe Police spokeswoman said the threat wasn’t credible.
Parents were alerted and police presence was increased at the school, but classes went on as scheduled.
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An investigation by the Tempe Police Department and the Tempe Union School District led to the arrest of a 16-year-old student who allegedly was responsible for the threat, police said Monday in a press release.
The student, who was suspended from school, was charged making a terrorist threat, interfering with an educational institution, and use of electronic communication to terrify, intimidate, threaten or harass.
The threat was made one day after a similar incident at another campus in the district, Phoenix’s Mountain Pointe High School.
Mountain Pointe students were told not to bring backpacks that day and that they would not be penalized if they stayed home.
Issuing a threat over social media, text or email is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison, Tempe Police said in the press release.
