2 Students Arrested For Making School Threats

DUTCHESS COUNTY, NY — Two students have been arrested in connection with separate and unrelated threats directed at the Pine Plains and BOCES school districts. The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office said both individuals are students, with one charged criminally and the other as a juvenile.

Around 10:30 a.m. Feb. 28, Deputies responded to the BOCES Tech Center in Town of Hyde Park for the report of someone making threats on Snapchat of “shooting up the school.”

After the detectives’ investigation, Magtalia Freeman, 17, was charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony, and falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor.

Freeman is a Pawling High School student who attends BOCES.

She was arraigned in the Town of Hyde Park Court, during which she was ordered to submit to a mental health evaluation.

After the evaluation is completed, Freeman will report to probation to be placed on electronic monitoring.

Around 1 p.m. Feb. 28, the Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officer assigned to the Pine Plains School District was made aware of a possible threat made by a student at Stissing Mountain Senior High School.

An investigation by the SRO and detectives found that a 15-year-old male student allegedly told other students that he was going to shoot up the class.

The student was arrested and charged as a juvenile and was released on an appearance ticket to appear before the Family Court.

The Sheriff’s Office said it will not reveal any more information at this time due to the student’s age.

Both threats were found to be non-credible, the Sheriff’s Office said, and there was no indication that staff or students were in danger at any point.

Photo caption: Magtalia Freeman. Photo credit: Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office.