Threat by student causes city schools to go on lockdown
COSHOCTON – Coshocton High School and Coshocton Elementary School were on lockdown this morning, March 9, after school officials were made aware of a credible threat by a student.
“We initiated a lockdown of both buildings because we didn’t know at the time if the student was on campus,” said Superintendent Dr. David Hire. “It turned out that the student was at home and didn’t come to school today.”
The student who made the threat is now in the custody of the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office, who by late morning gave the school district the all clear to return students to their normal routines.
According to a press release from the sheriff’s office, the resource officer for Coshocton City Schools was made aware of the threat around 8:03 a.m. and began school safety protocols. Multiple deputies were dispatched to the school to provide security until the threat could be located. By 8:58 a.m. a 15-year-old male was taken into custody at his home.
“We are trying to carry on as normal,” Hire said. “I’m still trying to piece things together, but it’s my understanding that a student came in this morning (at the high school) and informed us that the perpetrator told them to stay away from school today because there was going to be problems. I also believe the sheriff’s office has a video where the student was making threats and had a firearm. I don’t know where this video was or if this was all done by social media, but when we were made aware of the threat we wanted to find out where this student was and make sure there was no threat to anyone.”
He is happy to report that everyone is now safe and secure and that staff and students followed procedures put in place for situations like this.
“We had a very good presence from the sheriff’s office during this incident to make sure that there were no issues on campus,” Hire said. “We are working on doing building debriefings to discuss what went well, address questions anyone has and review the process. I know people are nervous, but this ended well. I’m very appreciative of the sheriff’s office and their response and of how the faculty, staff and students handled themselves.”
This is an active, on-going investigation, and anyone with pertinent information is asked to contact The Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office at 740-622-2411.
Assisting the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office with this investigation is the Coshocton City Schools and Coshocton County Prosecutor Jason Given.
Category: Education
