BEACH PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A student’s social media threat caused a Lake County middle school to be placed on lockdown for nearly three hours on Monday.
The threat was made by a student at Beach Park Middle School. Interim Beach Park School District #3 Superintendent Dr. Denise Wilcox wrote in a message to parents that a student alerted a school administrator at around 7:40 a.m. of a video posted by fellow student to the social media app Snapchat over the weekend. In the video, the student sitting in a closet with weapons, threatened to bring a gun to school. Wilcox said since the video was filtered the student could not be identified. Administrators immediately brought in a school resource officer as well as the Lake County Sheriffs for the case. At that point, officials placed the school on hard lockdown in order to search lockers and the building, the superintendent said.
After a nearly three hour investigation, law enforcement and school officials tracked down the student who posted the video. It was a 11-year-old male student. The lockdown was lifted soon there after. According to Wilcox, they traced the threat from another student’s Snapchat video posted on Monday.
Lake County Sheriffs said the boy who made the threat was at the school during the lockdown, but did not have any weapons on him when he was found. Sheriff deputies will refer this case to the juvenile court system, Lake County Sheriff Deputy Chief Chris Covelli said.
Superintendent Wilcox said the alleged threat maker will face disciplinary action from the school district.
“While we are always going to act with an abundance of caution, at no time were any students or staff in danger. The administrative team is doing their due diligence in investigating the situation further to ensure there are no safety concerns for the future,” Wilcox said.
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