MedicCook
11-09-2007, 02:18 AM
Queensbury school threat leads to arrest
QUEENSBURY -- A 13-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly posted a message on an Internet site threatening to open fire today at Queensbury High School and injure a classmate.
Brian Howard, the superintendent of the Queensbury Union Free School district, said he learned of the threat at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday after the FBI was alerted to the posting by a tipster. Howard said the FBI involvement heightened the response at the school to the threat.
"You know 98 percent of these things won't be real but you have to operate as if it is the 2 percent," Howard said.
State police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Albany worked overnight to trace the computer message to a Queensbury residence. The 13-year-old boy living there told police he posted the message and made a similar threat to injure a classmate, but he acted alone and did not have access to firearms.
Howard said he learned of the arrest at 5:15 a.m. today. District staff searched the high school inside and out for any weapon that might have been hidden and allowed students to enter through only one door when the school day began.
The teen was charged as a juvenile with making a terroristic threat, a felony that will be handled in Warren County Family Court. The boy will go through a hearing process that will determine his future at the school, the superintendent said.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=637338&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=11/8/2007
QUEENSBURY -- A 13-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly posted a message on an Internet site threatening to open fire today at Queensbury High School and injure a classmate.
Brian Howard, the superintendent of the Queensbury Union Free School district, said he learned of the threat at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday after the FBI was alerted to the posting by a tipster. Howard said the FBI involvement heightened the response at the school to the threat.
"You know 98 percent of these things won't be real but you have to operate as if it is the 2 percent," Howard said.
State police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Albany worked overnight to trace the computer message to a Queensbury residence. The 13-year-old boy living there told police he posted the message and made a similar threat to injure a classmate, but he acted alone and did not have access to firearms.
Howard said he learned of the arrest at 5:15 a.m. today. District staff searched the high school inside and out for any weapon that might have been hidden and allowed students to enter through only one door when the school day began.
The teen was charged as a juvenile with making a terroristic threat, a felony that will be handled in Warren County Family Court. The boy will go through a hearing process that will determine his future at the school, the superintendent said.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=637338&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=11/8/2007