Student, 14, held in copycat threat at Arkansas high school

HOT SPRINGS -- A 14-year-old student at Lakeside High School was arrested Friday morning after confessing to writing a copycat threat of a shooting on campus.

It was the second time in as many days the Lakeside School District and the Hot Springs Police Department addressed a threat written on a restroom wall at a school.

The threat Friday was investigated less than 15 hours after a boy was shot in an unrelated incident on Fernwood Street, which is in the school district boundaries.

"Please talk with your students about how big an issue this is," the school district posted on its Facebook site at 11:21 a.m. Friday. "There are serious long-term school and legal repercussions that can have a major effect on the student making the threat, up to removal from Lakeside. It is imperative to tell your students to report any threatening behavior to the school and to you as a parent."

The second threat was discovered on a day when multiple agencies visited campus for Veterans Day activities.

An Arkansas Army National Guard crew flew a Black Hawk helicopter to the campus Friday morning from Camp Robinson in North Little Rock. Also on campus were members of the Hot Springs Police Department's SWAT team, who led students on tours of the department's MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle.

"We are investigating an anonymous threat that was found written in a High School restroom stating that there would be a shooting, no names were mentioned," read a statement on the district's Facebook page at 9:35 a.m.

Parents began receiving official notifications shortly after the post.

"This morning the Hot Springs Police Department was alerted to a new threat at Lakeside High School," the department said in a post on Facebook. "This was a copycat incident from the threat that was made yesterday. A student has been taken into custody and there is no danger to the students at Lakeside."

A second post on the department's Twitter account said a 14-year-old student was arrested in the threat.

Police were alerted Thursday of a threat written on a restroom wall at Lakeside Middle School. A district official says the district worked closely with law enforcement officials to investigate the matter, and a student confessed to writing it.

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State Desk on 11/11/2017

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