LAKEWOOD – This morning, Lakewood Police received an email that referenced “blowing up” or “shooting up” an unnamed school, according to a recent post on the department’s website.
After receiving the threat, detectives determined the school to be Lakewood High School. The school then performed a lockdown drill, beginning at around 11:50 a.m. and ending at approximately 12:30 p.m., according to a representative from Lakewood High School, after officials determined the school to be safe.
“Within a few minutes we were able to determine that it was sent from the Lakewood High School and had the name of a potential suspect,” stated the police in the post. “After advising school administrators, a decision was made to lock-down the students in place by school officials.”
In addition to the response from the Lakewood police, officers and K9 units from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department also made sure that the school was safe and free from any explosives, after the email pointed to “blowing up” the school.
“Further investigation by Detectives Mike Cavallo and Lynn Miller, revealed after speaking with two 17-year-old students, that the email was sent as a hoax. One of the students sent our website the email but used the other student’s identifiers,” stated the post.
The students were in their Business Law class when the message was sent from a school computer. The police later found that the student whose identifiers were used did not play a role in the hoax, according to police.
The student who sent the threat was charged with Creating a False Public Alarm and Terroristic Threats. This student has since been released, pending a juvenile hearing.
Photo courtesy The Lakewood Scoop.
