NEWPORT -- Police arrested a 17-year-old Newport High School student Tuesday after they say he wrote a threatening message on a bathroom wall at the school, Lt. Patrick Weatherford of the Newport Police Department said.
The student, whom police did not name because he is a minor, is expected to be charged with first-degree terroristic threatening today in Jackson County District Court. He was being held in the White River Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville, Weatherford said.
Newport School District officials contacted police after finding a message scrawled on a high school bathroom wall. The handwritten message read, "School shooting, May 9," Weatherford said.
During the investigation, police officers increased patrols on the junior and high school campus.
Several students told a school resource officer that the boy talked about shooting people at the school. Police arrested the student Tuesday morning.
He had no weapons at the time of his arrest, Weatherford said.
Police don't know why the student made the threats. When he was arrested, the youth immediately asked for an attorney and would not answer questions, Weatherford said.
State Desk on 05/10/2017