14-Year-Old Charged After Making Threats At Tewksbury High School

TEWKSBURY, MA -- A 14-year-old Tewksbury Memorial High School student was arrested Thursday after he made threats against another student. While the student was approached by the School Resource Officer shortly after he made the threat, Tewksbury Police issued a shelter-in-place order for the school and called in additional officers to secure the building.

Police searched the freshman and his belongings and determined he did not have any weapons. He was arrested and was being held at the Tewksbury Police Station Thursday afternoon, according to a joint release from the police department and the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

The student, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, is being charged with threatening the use of a dangerous weapon, two counts of threatening to commit a crime and disturbing a school assembly. Police said the investigation is ongoing and school officials said they were fully cooperating with Tewksbury Police and the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

Police said they had conducted a thorough search of the building and there was no threat present. Some parents had arrived at school and their children were dismissed into their custody. The remainder of the student body was dismissed at the normal time Thursday.

A police source said the initial call from the School Resource Officer came in at 7:45 am. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that no gun had been found on the student and that the high school students were told to shelter in place as a precaution. Classes continued as police conducted their search of the building.

Parents flocked to Facebook shortly after 8 AM Thursday to share information and updates after receiving text messages from their children saying they had been told to shelter in place and that the action was not a drill. Several parents had been told by their children that a male freshman said he was going to shoot a senior. The girl who heard the threats immediately reported it to school officials. Early posts from parents suggested the student who was arrested had shown a gun to the girl, but those reports proved to be false.

The student who allegedly made the threat was detained in the office but police did not find a gun or any other threat to student safety. There was a heavy police presence at the school and at least one group of students were told by teachers to run into the woods near the school, according to a parent's Facebook post. Students were being told to expect a heavy police presence at the school throughout the remainder of the day.

At 9:41 AM a transmission over the police department's radio frequency said an officer was transporting a male juvenile back to the station. The transmission did not make it clear if it was related to the incident at the high school.

The incident comes just three days after a Shawsheen Technical High School student was arrested for making a Snapchat threat. The 15-year-old boy allegedly sent out a Snapchat video showing him holding a weapon that looked like an assault rifle and making threatening comments.

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Photo: Tewksbury Police take a Tewksbury Memorial High School student into custody Thursday morning after an alleged gun threat and a lockdown at the school. Photo provided to Tewksbury Patch by a source who requested anonymity. All rights reserved.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).