Tucson boy, 11, among arrests as hoax school threats spread on internet

An 11-year-old Tucson boy has been arrested in connection with a school threat as police here and across the nation continue to be inundated with an ongoing spread of hoax threats on social media platforms, authorities say.

The days-long online hoaxes have resulted in police adding to security at some campuses, increasing patrols near schools and frayed the nerves of parents and students.

“The Public Safety Communications Department (PSCD) received a large number of 9-1-1 calls reporting threats,” Tucson police said in a news release Monday. “Simultaneously, other viral school threats were being shared, showing different images with other school names in the Tucson area, which resulted in over one hundred 9-1-1 calls.”

In one of the Tucson cases, investigators linked the 11-year-old boy to an initial threat leveled against a Tucson middle school. The boy was arrested on a felony charge of disrupting an educational facility after admitting to making the threat and taken to the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center, the release said.

The student’s intent was “to cause fear and disruption to the school and never to carry out an act of violence,” Kelley Brooks-Cavaletto, the principal at Elvira Elementary School, said Monday in a note to parents.

The school will be providing counseling to students, the principal went on to say.

Separately, Tucson police received information about a new threat Monday morning regarding an unnamed high school.

In that incident, a 15-year-old boy was arrested in suspicion of a misdemeanor count of using electronic communication to terrify, intimidate, threaten or harass. He too was taken to the juvenile detention center, the release said.

Meanwhile, the Marana Police Department posted on its Facebook page that it too was dealing with a spate of school threats.

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While they said it is important for such threats to be reported to law enforcement, it went on to plea with parents and students to refrain from “sharing or reposting unconfirmed threats on social media.”

The department went on to ask parents to speak to their kids about the seriousness of such threats and criminal charges that could result.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Monday it also has investigated the rash of online threats and found them to be unsubstantiated so far.

“The safety of our students and educational communities is our top priority. PCSD is committed to taking all necessary actions, including making arrests, when there is sufficient evidence and probable cause. We are collaborating closely with regional law enforcement agencies to ensure a comprehensive and vigilant response to these threats.”

The department asked that anyone with information that could help identify those making the threats to call 911 immediately.

Earlier this month the department arrested two students following multiple reports of school threats, and one charter school had students attend classes online rather than on campus.

The hoax threats started days after a shooting that killed four people and wounded nine at a Georgia high school outside of Atlanta. A 14-year-old student and his father have been charged in connection with the Georgia case.