Harlan County High School student charged with 26 felony counts of terroristic threatening
A Harlan County High School student was arrested Friday and charged with 26 felony counts of terroristic threatening.
The Harlan County sheriff’s office said the arrest of the student, who was not named, followed an “extensive investigation” throughout the week that included the sheriff’s office, school administrators and the Harlan County Safe Schools director.
Earlier in the week, the school system had made posts on social media stating that no threats had been made and that it believed students were “purposely circulating” rumors.
“Our School Resource Officers, Safe Schools Director, Sheriff’s department, and school administrators have thoroughly followed up on every single report and ALL reports have turned out to be false or extreme exaggerations that are being made by a few students in an attempt to cause fear,” the Harlan County Public Schools said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning.
But after the sheriff’s office announced the student’s arrest on Friday, the school district said in a statement on Facebook that students had come forward with “new information” regarding a list of student names that had been circulated.
The sheriff’s office said the students at the high school had provided “vital information” to school administrators and law enforcement on Thursday. The information was presented to the Harlan County Attorney’s Office and a court-designated worker, and the Harlan District Court issued a pickup order for the juvenile, the sheriff’s office said.
“The juvenile was taken into custody in Harlan and transported to the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center,” the sheriff’s office said.
Harlan County Public Schools said in a Facebook post Tuesday that school administrators on Monday learned of a “list of student names circulating within the school.”
The school system said then that the student who had made the untitled list of first and last names was identified immediately.
When asked what the list meant, the student “said that he had simply written the names of students he didn’t like and had crossed out some of the names as they had started being nicer to him.,” the school district said in the social media post Tuesday.
The school district said that on Tuesday morning, the student “agreed” to spend the next two weeks in the school’s “safe room” after another student shared the list on social media, saying it could be a “hit list.”
The school district said the student who wrote the list “knew social media had taken the list he created and turned it into something it was never meant to be” and wanted to “relieve any fears that he was a threat to any of his classmates.”
But because of “numerous untruthful stories about the list of names and possible threats.,” the school district said, it was decided later Tuesday that the student would remain out of school for the rest of December.
“The young man decided at the end of the day that the best way to keep his classmates from being afraid was to remove himself totally from our school,” the school district said in the Tuesday social media post.
The district said the safe schools director had tried to contact the parents of all the students whose names were on the list.
“Any fear that may have been created by the list should be resolved with the removal of the student from HCHS,” the district said Tuesday. “There was NEVER a threat made by this or any other student to the best of our knowledge at this time.”
On Wednesday morning, the school district said in a Facebook post that though the student who wrote the list was not at school, rumors were “causing disruption” at the high school and urged anyone with “actual first-hand knowledge of any threat” to come forward.
“The repeating of unfounded rumors is consuming an inordinate amount of law enforcement time and resources,” Harlan County Public Schools said in a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon.
“Each time we investigated one of the allegations, it came back to an ‘I heard’ or ‘I thought’ type statement stemming primarily from social media,” Harlan County Public Schools said in the Wednesday afternoon post. “Every report was taken seriously and investigated but ALL have turned out to be nothing more than rumors or exaggerations.”
The district again urged anyone with firsthand knowledge of a threat to contact school administrators or the sheriff’s office but also warned that anyone “found to be knowingly making false reports or initiating/sharing false rumors on social media in an effort to disrupt the educational process will be charged and referred to the courts.”
After the sheriff’s office announced the student’s arrest on Friday, the school district said in a statement on Facebook that “multiple students came forward and spoke directly with school administrators and law enforcement as school officials have urged students to do at all times. The students provided information about the ‘list of students names’ incident which was promptly shared with law enforcement. We commend these students and appreciate the way they presented the new information directly to administration and law enforcement. Firsthand knowledge of information is critical and helps us to address any possible fears or concerns in a quick and efficient manner.”
School officials and law enforcement said they are working together closely in response to the case, which the sheriff’s office is still investigating.
“The safety of our children is our highest priority and all possible actions will be taken to ensure their safety,” the sheriff’s office said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 10:27 PM.
