NKyTribune staff
Two 14-year-old Ignite Academy students have been charged with Terroristic Threatening Second Degree, after police say they posted plans to shoot up the school.
The students, both freshman, say they were joking but Boone County Sheriff’s deputies, as they have with previous similar incidents, took the threat very seriously.
A 13-year-old R. A. Jones Middle School student was arrested and charged with terroristic threatening Saturday after he made a similar threat.
The Boone County Sheriff’s office released the following statement regarding the incident:
On Monday, November 18, 2019 Boone County Sheriff’s deputies took two juvenile suspects into custody and lodged them at the Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center after an investigation revealed they made threats to shoot up their school, the Ignite Academy located at 37 Atlantic Avenue in Erlanger, Kentucky.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. school staff notified their S.R.O. Deputy Don Taylor of a threat they learned of made by two students to shoot up the school. Deputy Taylor interviewed one of the students and his parents at his home in Taylor Mill, Kentucky.
The student admitted to making the threats but said he was joking. Simultaneously, two patrol deputies interviewed the other student and his parents at their Hebron, Kentucky home.
There, the student showed the investigators a Snapchat post he sent to other students stating, “Don’t come to school tomorrow” accompanied by a green gun emoji and a dynamite emoji.
Both students are 14 year old freshmen at the school who are *charged with Terroristic Threatening 2nd degree, a Class D felony. Both will appear in juvenile court this morning.
*Charges in a criminal complaint are accusations only. It is the government’s burden to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
