PRESCOTT, AZ – A Bagdad High School student has been arrested and charged with Interference with an Educational Facility and Terrorist Acts after “joking” that he was “shoot up the school.”
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, on September 28 at approximately noon, the Bagdad High School principal contacted the Sheriff’s Office to report that a student had received several text messages from an unknown person who was threatening to “shoot up the school.”
The student told the principal that he was concerned with one of the messages that said, “I’m shooting up the school on Wednesday during third hour. Be ready to leave.”
Deputies interviewed the student who received the texts, who said he did not know who sent them. However, school officials were able to track a website where the texts originated and determined a 17-year-old student had accessed the website at the same time as the texts were received by the reporting student.
The principal was able to find the suspected student during the lunch hour and speak with him. The student admitted to sending the text messages and that he did this as a joke. Deputies asked the suspected student if he had access to weapons and he said he did not, and a search of his home and vehicle confirmed this.
The Sheriff’s Office deputies say that “of particular concern was that during the conversation with the suspect student while waiting for transport to the juvenile facility after his arrest, it was clear he had no understanding of the severity of his actions.”