Shooting threat at Coleville High School
A male juvenile was taken into custody after making a credible threat at Coleville High School on Thursday, Feb. 4. Mono County Sheriff’s deputies detained the juvenile before he was able to follow through with any of his alleged threats.
Don Clark, Eastern Sierra Unified School District Superintendent, told The Sheet that late in the afternoon on Thursday, a 17-year old male talked to two other boys on a school bus about wanting to shoot staff and students. The conversation was recorded by one of the students.
Officers verified the threats and later interviewed the suspect, who was detained and transported to Juvenile Hall in Independence, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Department. The names of the suspect and victims were withheld by the Sheriff’s Department. Clark added that there were no weapons found on the juvenile.
Clark said the suspect, a senior in high school, had been on the school’s radar, but that the school had hopes he would make it to graduation, “He was so close to the finish line,” Clark said.
Clark was impressed by the students’ reaction. The schools have regular drills on how to respond, but the location of this event, a bus, was unique. Buses regularly transport school athletes from Coleville to Bridgeport, and in that drive is more than 15 miles of no cell service, meaning any situation that arises in that span must be handled by the bus driver.
“That’s asking a lot of our personnel,” Clark said.
Locals may be shocked at the threat being so close to home, but many spree, or active shooter, cases occur in rural areas, including Columbine, Newtown, Goleta, and DeKalb.
