Ironton student arrested for threats against school

Published 7:38 pm Wednesday, September 11, 2024

A second Lawrence County student was arrested Wednesday for making threats towards their school.

According to a release from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy working as a school resource officer at Ironton High School arrested a 16-year-old student “after she made a verbal threat to shoot up the school. This female did not have any weapons.”

The girl was arrested and taken to the Lawrence County Juvenile Center for delinquency by inducing panic. She will be arraigned in the Lawrence County Juvenile Court at a later date.

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This was the second arrest by the sheriff’s office on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, a 12-year-old Dawson-Bryant Junior High School student was arrested for using SnapChat to make a threat against the school system.

She was taken to the Lawrence County Juvenile Center on charges of delinquency by terroristic threats and delinquency by inducing panic. She will also be arraigned in juvenile court at a later date.

The sheriff’s office has been dealing with a number of threats against schools in the county, which the 12-year-old girl said she did not make.

The sheriff’s office said detectives are working on threats that were made toward the Rock Hill School District and possibly toward the South Point School District.

A possible threat towards the Fairland School District turned out to be false as the threats were made a couple of days ago were actually aimed at schools in North Carolina. Authorities there arrested an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old who made the threats against 40 schools on Instagram because they didn’t want to go to school on Monday.

“Therefore, we have had no threat toward the Fairland School District as of now,” Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless said.

He said he appreciated the efforts of all the school districts in in implementing their safety plans and working hand in hand with the sheriff’s office.

“I also appreciate the efforts of my staff who have worked diligently since the start of these threats,” Lawless said. “Once again, if you make a threat against one of our schools and we develop evidence against you, you will be arrested!”