Third Southern Boone Middle School student arrested

By: Tara Blue
A third middle school student was arrested on Friday, Sep. 20th after Ashland Police Department was alerted to a suspicious social media account. According to APD, they were made aware of an Instagram account earlier in the week which contained content interpreted to be threatening and harassing to other students and listing them by name.

APD says they worked with the school district and the Boone County Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes Task Force to identify the owner of the account, then arrested the juvenile suspect at 3:00pm on Friday at the Southern Boone Middle School. APD says a charge of 1st degree Making a Terrorist Threat has been requested, and that the release of any further details about the suspect’s identity or status is prohibited.

The first middle school student was arrested on Friday, Sep. 13th for verbally Making a Terrorist Threat. On Monday, Sep. 16th, school parents complained to several members of the school board and APD that the middle school administration was not communicating and responding appropriately with APD regarding potential threats. APD then requested that community members directly share pertinent information with them by using their digital evidence management system and provided a link and a scannable QR code for easy access.

A second middle school was then arrested for assault in the fourth degree after APD was made aware of a verbal threat.

As of Saturday, Sep. 21st, APD says they have no evidence that leads them to believe the three threats are related or connected to each other.

The U.S. has seen a surge in school threats nationwide after a 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray allegedly shot 11 people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday, Sep. 4th.