[P]olice have cited a Harwood Union High School student who they say posted threats on social media to shoot up the school with a crossbow and harm a fellow student with a car bomb.
The 15-year-old student, whom police would not name as he is a juvenile, posted a photograph with instructions for making a homemade crossbow, accompanying it with the comment “This be what imma use to shoot up a school,” according to a letter from Harwood Unified School District Superintendent Brigid Nease. In addition, she wrote, the student issued a threat to use a car bomb to kill an unspecified female.
A parent contacted Harwood Union High School Principal Lisa Atwood on June 12, telling her of the existence of the post. Superintendent Nease immediately called the Vermont State Place, who searched the student’s home and spoke with a parent.
The student has been ordered to appear at Washington County Superior Court on June 14, on charges of criminal threatening and disorderly conduct by electronic device.
“Safety is our top priority. All precautionary measures will be taken. There will be police presence at Harwood Union High School for the remainder of school year,” Nease said in her letter. Nease said that the district is planning to investigate further.
State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman said that while every threat is regarded by police as a credible threat, when police searched the teenager’s home they found no evidence that he had access to weapons to act on the threats.
No further details of the case have been released because the student was a juvenile, Silverman said.
Harwood Union is not the first Vermont high school to come under threat from one of its students. A former Fair Haven Union High School student was arrested earlier this year after police learned of threats he was making to stage a mass shooting at his old school. In the Fair Haven case, Jack Sawyer had gone so far as to purchase a shotgun and ammunition before he was arrested.
The Sawyer case inspired a close examination of the state’s gun laws and led to several significant changes.
