On Dec. 14, the Flower Mound police department announced that an LISD student had been identified on Dec. 11 and detained Dec. 13 for a circulating school shooting threat. The student was charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony, and was taken to the Denton County Juvenile Detention Center. The department didn’t disclose their identity, and the investigation is still ongoing.
“Please talk to your students about the serious nature of making threats, because those words can lead to significant legal consequences, in addition to disciplinary action from the school district,” the police department said in the press release.
Principal Will Skelton spoke during school announcements on Dec. 16 to update the students and staff about the detainment. He emphasized the importance of notifying authorities about threatening behavior instead of reposting it on social media.
“That’s a big takeaway, students, and I hope you hear that,” Skelton announced. “When you see those things on social media, talk with your parents, but report, don’t repost.”
On the evening of Thursday Dec. 9, a post on Snapchat circulated about a person planning to shoot at the school at 11:40 a.m. Similar threats were directed at Flower Mound and iSchool of Lewisville.
That night, the district sent an email to students and parents about the situation.
“We always, always take these situations seriously and investigate them fully,” the email stated. “If we believe at any point there is a legitimate threat to our campus, we will immediately communicate with parents via phone calls, emails and social media postings.”
There was an increased police presence on campus on Friday, Dec. 10, the day after the threat was made. That day’s pep rally was also canceled. The police department stated that after investigating the situation thoroughly, no real threat was found.
However, many students either left school early or didn’t attend at all on the Friday following the threat. Senior Cinbee Chun said she stayed home after hearing about the threats through a group chat.
“There’s been a lot of shootings recently,” Chun said. “So I don’t take these things very lightly. And shootings are probably one of my worst fears.”
Junior Shane Fox-Boice, who attended school, said that so few students were at school that teachers changed their lesson plans for the day.
“For me, most of my classes, only half of them were there,” Fox-Boice said. “But for a lot of classes, it was even less.”
Fox-Boice said that he came to school partially because he trusted the school administration to keep students safe.
“I knew that the school knew about it,” Fox-Boice said. “And they had time to think about what they would do. They were probably going to lock the doors and not do the pep rally… so there wasn’t really as much of a risk.”
