Juvenile Petitions Being Sought Against Student After Making Threats of Mass Violence Towards Bethany Charter School
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Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office News Release • September 19, 2024 • K. Suthard, PIO
(Wentworth, NC) – On Sunday, 9/15/2024, Rockingham County Sheriff’s Investigators began looking into reports of threats against Bethany Charter School by a student via text thread to seven other students. In the thread, the student identified themself and indicated they were going to “shoot up the school.”
As a result of this investigation, Rockingham County Sheriff’s Investigators learned that the juvenile student who made the threats was another student of Bethany Charter School pretending to be the student identified in the text thread. Using available investigative technologies, Detective Winnie Ortega identified who and where the text thread originated from, and that information was turned over to officers from the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice to obtain a juvenile petition against the responsible minor for Communicating Threats of Mass Violence Against Educational Property. Information about the juvenile charged cannot be disclosed under North Carolina law.
“All threats are treated seriously and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent available,” said Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. “It’s not a joke, and even if you pretend to be someone else and/or try to hide your tracks, we can still find out who you are. It will not be tolerated here in Rockingham County.”
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