A Juneau student whose classmates say threatened to commit a shooting at their high school is under investigation but not under arrest, following calls from some parents for him to be taken into custody.
The threat against Thunder Mountain High School first came to light Saturday, according to a Monday statement from the Juneau Police Department. Police alerted school administrators, as well as the Juneau School District and other local authorities, after students told police that "another student was threatening a school shooting on Monday."
Juneau School District Superintendent Mark Miller said Monday afternoon that the threat had been made "before Thanksgiving."
"It was very non-specific — it wasn't like, 'I'm going to do a school shooting at Thunder,' or anything else," Miller said. "It was very non-specific, it was very generic, but regardless when something like this happens, you have to take it seriously."
Juneau police Lt. David Campbell said only limited information was available on the matter Monday, due to the lack of criminal charges and the source of the threat being a juvenile. He declined to say where the threat was made, or whether it specifically targeted any person or group at the school.
"We have these three students that came forward, and they were concerned about a classmate of theirs," Campbell said. "They told us about these threats, so we felt they were credible enough to act upon."
Officers spoke with the student later Saturday at his home, with his parents present, Campbell said.
Campbell said nothing in the investigation so far warranted arresting the student or placing him under a custodial hold. He emphasized that police had taken the threat and investigation seriously, noting that the student was told not to visit Thunder Mountain or any other Juneau School District schools Monday.
"What we're doing now is more precautionary than anything else," Campbell said. "He has been told that he's not supposed to be at the schools, and if he does show up people should contact us so we can take appropriate action."
Juneau District Attorney James Scott said Monday that his office had not received any information from police to review for potential charges.
Miller said no disciplinary action has yet been planned or taken against the student, pending the completion of an investigation by Thunder Mountain administrators.
"This was a single student who was apparently having a tough time, who made what could be considered a threat, which we needed to investigate," Miller said.
A post Sunday night regarding the threat on JPD's Facebook page received more than 80 comments in less than 12 hours. Some concerned parents said that they would keep their children home from school until the student behind the alleged threat was arrested or otherwise detained.
Although police were aware of what Campbell called "rumor-mongering" on social media about the threat and its aftermath, Campbell said police were still investigating the incident. In the meantime, a second officer was assigned Monday to back up the single school resource officer at both Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas high schools, and other officers were stepping up visits to other Juneau School District facilities.
"We decided that this is a situation that brings a lot of fear to people, and we saw on social media that there was a lot of people expressing fear," Campbell said. "If anybody has any firsthand knowledge of information that they would think would help us, we'd want them to call in and talk to an officer — but the rumor-mongering isn't particularly helpful."
Campbell also took a moment to thank the students who informed police of the threat Saturday.
"Kudos to the kids who came forward and let us know this was happening," Campbell said. "It's brave to step forward like that."