15-year-old student made shooting threat at high school, authorities say
A 15-year-old Northampton Area High School student has been charged with making a threat that led district officials to close the high school Tuesday.
Northampton County First Assistant District Attorney Richard H. Pepper said Thursday that the girl, whose name was not released because of her age, will be processed through the county juvenile justice system.
Pepper said the message, which was written March 10 in a bathroom at the school, included a “shooting” threat for March 14.
That led school Superintendent Joseph S. Kovalchik to close the school Tuesday, as investigators pursued leads on who wrote the threat, according to officials. Classes were held remotely. The school reopened Wednesday with an increased police presence.
Kovalchik said Thursday the student has been removed from the school “and is not and will not be in school or on school property.”
He also said the district referred a separate incident to law enforcement in which someone posted a message on social media related to the increased police presence, which included a K-9 officer in the high school. The message inferred that the person had a weapon in school, but police found no weapon during a search, Kovalchik said.
That individual, whom Kovalchik did not identify, will also face charges and will be banned from school property, he said.
Pepper said every threat aimed at schools is taken “very seriously.” School district police were joined in the investigation by law enforcement from Northampton, Lehigh and Moore townships, and state police, he said.
— Anthony Salamone