'This will not be tolerated': Wood County officials discuss wave of threats to schools

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard, from left, Prosecutor Pat Lefebure and Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board held a news conference at the Wood County Justice Center Friday to address recent threats to area schools. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — Two Wood County students were arrested over a 24-hour period in connection with alleged threats of violence against their schools.

It follows the detention of two middle school students on Wednesday and Thursday following similar incidents and comes amid a wave of threats of school violence and rumours in the region.

The Parkersburg Police Department was notified around 2 p.m. Friday by the Wood County School Board of a message received on the state’s See Something Send Something app alluding to “a significant act of school violence at Parkersburg High School,” according to a statement from Police Chief Matthew Board.

The department determined the suspect was a 15-year-old PHS student who was not at school Friday, the release said. The suspect was located at a Vienna residence and detained with the assistance of the Vienna Police Department before being taken to the Parkersburg department for questioning.

The juvenile suspect was placed in the Lorrie Yeager Juvenile Detention Center pending a detention hearing in Wood County Circuit Court at a later date.

“There are no other suspects, persons of interest or other threats involved in this incident,” the statement said. “Furthermore, no evidence was discovered that would have allowed the minor suspect to carry out the threat implied in the message.”

On Thursday, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 16-year-old Parkersburg South High School student after a potential threat circulated online that afternoon. The student was not at school at the time and “Officials had no reason to believe there was an immediate physical threat to students or faculty,” According to a post on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page, the sheriff’s office responded because the student lived outside city limits.

“We will continue to investigate and follow through on any threats made, whether credible or not,” The board said this during a news conference Friday afternoon at the Wood County Justice Center. “Whether it’s thwarting a real threat that was going to continue or eliminating someone who is simply trying to cause chaos, they will have to be held accountable.”

The board said its department had received several reports of potential threats over the past week, two of which turned out to be unrelated to the local area.

“We found out that one of them was in West Virginia, but several hours away.” The council said. “We contacted the authorities in that location, and the other one was actually in the northeastern United States.”

He said his department was notified Thursday night by a Washington County sheriff’s deputy of a threat made at VanDevender Middle School involving a planned shooting.

In response, he said police took immediate action to ensure the safety of students. The student who made the threats was not at school at the time, but was located and taken into custody. He is currently being held at the Lorrie Yeager Jr. Juvenile Center and is being charged with making terroristic threats.

The board said there was no evidence of co-conspirators or the student’s ability to actually carry out the threatened act.

“If you make a threat, even if you don’t intend to carry it out, but you plan to create chaos, that’s still a violation and it won’t be tolerated.” he said.

A Blennerhassett High School student was taken into custody Wednesday for allegedly making threats. Minutes before Friday’s news conference, Woodyard said, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the school to investigate another report of threats.

“Social networks are partly at the origin of this phenomenon,” Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said at the news conference. “People are reposting repost(s).”

He explained that earlier this week a threat was reported at Edison High School, but it was actually in Connecticut, not Parkersburg.

“So this adds to the dilemma,” Woodyard said. “We’re chasing something that somebody said and somebody said that somebody thought somebody heard. That’s where we are right now with some of these things.”

The situation was similar in Belpre on Thursday, when the Belpre Police Department was investigating an alleged online threat. That came two days after Superintendent Jeff Greenley notified parents via automated call and email that a potential threat had been reported by a student but was deemed unfounded.

Belpre Police Chief Mike Stump said Friday that this incident, Thursday’s incident and another report Friday all stemmed from a screenshot of a post shared multiple times on Snapchat and other social media.

“Everything has been carefully studied, there is no active threat,” he said. “It turned out that these were children who were sharing other social media posts that were circulating everywhere.”

Police questioned students late Thursday night and increased their presence at Belpre schools Friday morning, Stump said.

Stump said he has been in contact with the Washington and Wood county sheriff’s offices and that the post has been shared by area youth. He encouraged parents to talk to their children about responsible social media use and said students who see something disturbing online should notify their parents, school officials or law enforcement rather than sharing the content.

“If they see it, they should contact us, not spread it on social media,” he said. “Any information they receive, any message they see, any image, any screenshot that might lead them to believe there is a threat to a school system, should be reported to law enforcement.”

The council stressed the importance of the community reporting threats directly to law enforcement, rather than spreading unverified information on social media. It encouraged residents to “to be this inconvenience” and call 911 if they see something concerning, rather than posting it on Facebook.

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure, who was also at the news conference Friday, said it’s important for parents to talk to their children. He added that parents should tell their children they can’t post threatening messages on social media, even if they think they’re joking.

“They may be joking, but we’re not going to take this as a joke.” said Lefebure. “We will move forward and we will continue this process to the fullest extent possible.”

He said parents could also be investigated if it appears they helped their child post the messages.

“Ensure that law enforcement will continue to investigate the parents and, if appropriate, bring charges in this regard,” said Lefebure. “We have to understand that this is not tolerated in our community. And ultimately, we’re all going to get through this. Law enforcement can’t do this alone.”

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