Student in custody after threats made

A student was taken into custody at Queen City High School Tuesday, Aug. 18 just after 8 a.m. for threats he allegedly made online. The juvenile appeared before the Justice of the Peace at Cass County Law Enforcement Center in Linden and has been charged with False Alarm or Report—a state jail felony.

Dr. Charlotte Williams, Superintendent at Queen City Independent School District would not comment on the nature of the threats.

“I believe that the investigation is ongoing so I can’t comment on that at the moment”, Williams said, “I can tell you that authorities were made aware of a remark that was made online.”

According to Williams, the threat was identified by the Texas Fusion Center in Austin--the real-time watch center that works with federal, state, regional and local law enforcement and serves as the state repository for homeland security information and incident reporting. It provides real-time intelligence support to law enforcement and public safety authorities and consolidates information and data on suspicious activities and threats from all jurisdictions and disciplines as well as the public.

“They [Texas Fusion Center] notified local law enforcement. Local law enforcement came into the school and informed the school this morning. A child made a remark that should not have been made, they quickly came to the school and the child was taken into custody. The rest is still under investigation.”

Williams wants the public to know that the campus is secure.

“All students are safe and secure in class and administration will to take whatever steps are necessary to continue to maintain the safety of that campus and all of our campuses.”

Williams later released a statement on the district’s Facebook page which reads, in part, “At approximately 1:00 a.m. this morning a high school student made a digital false report about the high school campus. There were no weapons or other dangerous items located during a thorough search of the related areas of the school.”