NEW LENOX, IL — A 17-year-old Providence Catholic High School student has been charged with a felony, after he reportedly created a post on Snapchat threatening a shooting at the school, New Lenox Police said.
The situation unfolded quickly, New Lenox Police Chief Louis Alessandrini said. The FBI contacted New Lenox police just before noon Wednesday, informing them of a social media threat shared on Snapchat that was determined to have originated from inside the New Lenox high school.
The post showed a student’s lower body while he was seated at a desk, along with a caption indicating that he planned a shooting at the school. The FBI immediately began investigating the threat, according to police.
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The FBI provided the NLPD with the image and the name of a student suspected to have made the post. The NLPD quickly responded to the school and made contact with staff, officials said. The student was found and taken into custody. No weapons were found, and investigators determined that the school was secure.
Reports that the school was placed on lockdown were not accurate, officials said. Alessandrini said police had planned to implement a lockdown, but thorough information and swift action allowed them to avoid that measure.
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“In an effort to disseminate information as quickly as possible, and with such a police presence at the school, a social media post was made by us to inform the community of the situation. To clarify now, the school was never on ‘lockdown’ as indicated in our first post,” Alessandrini shared on social media. “This may have been our intention based on the threat, but because the student was located so quickly, and the school was determined to be safe from the threat, the ‘lockdown’ as indicated in our post never developed.”
Alessandrini said the police had issued the initial messaging just after noon in an effort to keep parents informed of police presence at the school, and intended next steps.
“It was our intention to go into lockdown, but because we had a name, we were able to quickly locate the student,” he told Patch. “I know when police presence is at a school, calls start coming in.”
The student was taken to the New Lenox Police Department, where he was charged with class 4 felony disorderly conduct, which Alessandrini said specifically deals with threats to a school, students, or an event at a school.
The student—who is from the Lockport area—was to be transported later Wednesday to the River Valley Juvenile Detention Center.
Alessandrini stressed the cooperation between the FBI, New Lenox police and school officials, which allowed response to the threat to move quickly and effectively.
“Thank you to our partners at the FBI for the manner in which they quickly got the information to us and made us aware of this dangerous threat,” Alessandrini said on social media. “Thank you to the staff at Providence Catholic High School for their work along with our officers and their assistance in locating the student, and thank you to the NLPD officers, investigators, and the LCC Dispatchers involved that brought this unfortunate situation to a very quick, safe, resolution in which thankfully no one was harmed.”
The student’s name has not been released, due to his age.
“I don’t know what triggered it,” Alessandrini said, of the threat. “These consequences for these types of actions are severe, and rightfully so.
“We have to treat every threat as credible until we disprove it. Our intentions were, we were going to put the school on lockdown.
“… we’re thankful for all the cooperation, but more importantly that no one was hurt.”
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