Threats against Oklahoma schools investigated after Florida massacre

In the wake of a Florida high school shooting that left 17 dead last week, Oklahoma authorities have spent the days since responding to threats against local schools.

A middle school student made a threat against a Newcastle school over the weekend.

Newcastle Superintendent Tony O’Brien said the student made a Facebook post over the weekend threatening to “shoot the school.” The threat did not specify what school, O’Brien said.

Police officers saw the post and contacted school officials about the threat over the weekend, O’Brien said.

Classes were in session Monday. Officers are making extra patrols at Newcastle schools and brought inreserve officers.

But reported threats Sunday night against Northwest Classen High School and Taft Middle School were not threats at all, Oklahoma City police said.

Investigators determined that the comments were warnings to other students to be careful at school, not threats, Master Sgt. Gary Knight said.

Classes were in session Monday, but additional security measures were in place, Oklahoma City Public Schools spokeswoman Beth Harrisonsaid.

A 17-year-old girl was arrested late Friday, accused of making a fake social media account under a boy’s name and and threatening violence at toward John Marshall High School and Northeast Academy in Oklahoma City.

Ariyon Moore, 17, was booked into an Oklahoma County juvenile detention facility on complaints of terrorism hoax and false impersonation.

Police departments in Kansas and Virginia also contacted police because they have schools there with similar names, police said.

In Moore, a Central Junior High student accused of threatening to “shoot up a school” was taken into custody Friday, a day after police found a hit list belonging to a Southmoore High School student.

The Central Junior High student was overheard making the threat Wednesday while riding the bus home from school, but it wasn’t reported to administrators until Friday, said Dustin Horstkoetter, director of safety and security.

On Thursday, Moore police took a Southmoore student into custody after they found the hit list. A fellow student told administrators they overheard the suspect talking about having such a list.

Threats of violence against schools also were reported Thursday in the Western Heights and Guthrie districts.