Grand Prairie Child Faces Felony Charges For Threat Against School
GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSDFW.COM) - The FBI helped police in Grand Prairie catch the child who posted a threat against Ronald Reagan Middle School on social media. That suspect, said to be a former student at the campus, is now in custody and facing felony charges.
The threat, posted on Instagram, showed pictures of somebody holding a rifle and an arsenal of guns -- the same images being used in similar school threats across the nation. The caption warned students to "stay home on 2/28/18" and added "I'm sick of everyone at Reagan, nobody cares about me, the counselors can't help me."
Law enforcement officials called this a bad prank, and explained that nobody was ever in danger. Still, many parents opted to keep their children at home on Tuesday, a day before the threatened shooting. Hoax or not, those parents said that it all feels very real when their children and school are involved.
"What's going on, as a parent, is just very crazy," said Calvin Cooper, who kept his child at home. "It's scary. It's nationwide."
"I had a class with just seven people," said student Bettina Cavasos. "There's usually 24."
Stories like this seem to be making North Texas news every day. Threats on a bathroom wall at Richardson High School led to two arrests. Social media postings have caused problems at Lake Dallas High School, and at schools in Arlington, Keller, The Colony and other cities.
The Grand Prairie Independent School District put additional security measures in place on Tuesday, and will continue to do so on Wednesday. Then, everything will go back to normal. "I'm worried what's going to happen Thursday, Friday, Monday," said parent Linda Perrotti. "We're going to have this high level of police presence here... then what?"