The Morning Call

Officials: NC man phoned threat to school in response to Satan Club

- By Anthony Salamone

A North Carolina man admitted to threatenin­g Saucon Valley Middle School last week after learning about the school district’s decision to allow a controvers­ial organizati­on to use the building, officials say.

Ceu Uk, 20, was arrested Monday afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Northampto­n County district attorney’s office.

He’s accused of leaving a voicemail with the middle school, saying he was displeased with the decision to allow an After School Satan Club to use the building, and threatenin­g to “come in there and shoot everybody,” the DA’s office said.

The threat forced the district to close all schools last Wednesday, a day after the threat was made.

Police tracked the phone number to Uk’s home in North Carolina. He initially denied leaving the message, then later confessed but said he didn’t mean it, according to a news release. He said he found out about the district’s decision to allow the club to use its building on Facebook.

Uk was being held under $75,000 bail on a count of making terroristi­c threats. He is awaiting extraditio­n to Pennsylvan­ia.

Saucon Valley Superinten­dent Jaime Vlasaty rescinded the decision to allow the After School Satan

Club to use the school a few days after the threat, saying the club failed to meet all district requiremen­ts, causing disruption to educationa­l programmin­g and activities.

Earlier, she defended her decision to allow the club, which is unaffiliat­ed with the district, to use facilities at the middle school. Vlasaty said the district legally could not discrimina­te against the Satanic Temple and Reason Alliance because the district has rented space to other third-party religious groups in the past.

District Attorney Terry Houck credited work by Lower Saucon Township police in their investigat­ion with assistance from Charlotte-Mecklenbur­g police in North Carolina.

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