AC student removed after threatening to “shoot up” school

Adams Central school officials notified parents and other community members Tuesday morning of a report they had received “regarding a threat made by a student towards the school. The report indicated a threat that a student stated she was going to ‘shoot up the school.’”

This report was received prior to the start of the school day by authorities and they quickly notified law enforcement of the situation.

Superintendent Joel Mahaffey said in a public release that “the student who allegedly made the threat was removed from school until further notice.” Mahaffey said the student involved did not possess any type of weapon today but that school administration will continue to work with law enforcement and legal counsel until this issue is thoroughly investigated.

Mahaffey said that at the present time he preferred not to list the age or grade the student was in but the public notice did indicate the student was female.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Department responded promptly to the school in addition to deputy Mike Mendoza who is the school resource officer at Adams Central.

Mahaffey noted it was quickly determined there was no real threat to staff or students’s safety and well-being. An Apptegy voice message was then sent out to notify the community of the situation.

“I want to assure the community that the Adams Central Community Schools administration takes all statements of threats seriously and will immediately turn all reports directly over to law enforcement. If anyone has more information to share regarding the issue or any other concerns affecting school safety, please contact our administration immediately by calling the school or visiting our website,” Mahaffey added.

Adams County Sheriff Dan Mawhorr stated “we were notified very early this morning and we took appropriate precautions to ensure the safety of the school. Being an investigation with minors no information will be released by this office. I will say that we found no immediate threat to the school and that is why the school was not put on lockdown.”

The superintendent concluded his comments by noting “our office has received a lot of very positive comments from the community about the way this situation was handled.

They told us they appreciated the communication from us.”