Lorain officials speak after social media threat toward school

LORAIN, Ohio (WJW) – Lorain City Schools and Lorain police held a press conference Tuesday after a social media threat led to canceling classes at the high school Tuesday morning.

According to a press release from the Lorain Police Department, police were notified by the FBI around 4 a.m. of a threat to “shoot up a school” was found on social media.

Investigators found that the threat came from a home in the City of Lorain.

According to the release, the Lorain Police Detective Bureau and the school’s resource officers investigated the threat.

Out of “an abundance of caution and commitment for safety” Lorain City Schools closed the high school Tuesday as police continued to investigate, according to the release.

Police received a confession from a 12-year-old girl around 7 a.m., the press release states. The suspect claimed to have written the threatening post as a joke.

According to the release, detectives checked to make sure the suspect had no means of following through on the threat and released her with a summons to appear before the juvenile court on a charge of inducing panic.

The suspect may still be subject to school discipline from Lorain City Schools, according to police.

Lorain elementary and middle schools were in session as usual on Tuesday. According to Superintendent Dr. Jeff Graham during the press conference, the high school in the district was closed because it opened first. The district and officials wanted to make sure schools were safe before allowing students to arrive.

Graham did confirm that the suspect is a student of Lorain City Schools.

“Bomb or shooting threats against any of our schools in Ohio are incredibly serious and disruptive actions,” Paul Craft, superintendent of public instruction for the State Board of Education, wrote in a statement to FOX 8 News. “Any adults involved should know that the full weight of the law will be brought to bear against them. Students involved in making threats will not only face those same serious legal issues, but will also be subject to long expulsions, loss of extracurricular privileges, and more.”

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