The two high school students arrested Thursday on second-degree terroristic threat charges are being held at the Johnson Youth Center, according to the Juneau Police Department.
The students, a 16-year-old boy who attends Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, and a 17-year-old boy who attends Thunder Mountain High School, were arrested following reports that the students had communicated a plan to commit acts of violence toward a group of JDHS students, according to JPD.
According to JPD spokesperson Lt. Krag Campbell, JPD won’t release the names of the students arrested because they are minors. He said JPD has intentionally chosen to not release certain details related to the case, including if a weapon was mentioned in the alleged plan, to prevent copycats.
“The allegations of what the kids have alleged to have done are concerning and we take reports of these allegations very seriously and we try to put people on them as soon as possible to figure out what is going on here,” Campbell said. “This is an example of working together to figure out what happened and to mitigate any potential threat to the students and school.”
According to police, JPD’s threat assessment team began investigating Wednesday evening as a precaution after being notified by the school district about reports made by students from both high schools about social media threats circulating online.
The students were arrested on Thursday.
Campbell said there is no indication of increased threat to the school at this time and JPD’s presence on the campus will go “back to normal.” An increased presence was maintained on Thursday.
Campbell said the investigation will remain ongoing as police continue to get more details to further understand the entirety of the situation.
• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter at @clariselarson.
