News release from Bridgeport Police Department spokesman Bill Kaempffer:
A 16-year-old youth was taken into custody late Wednesday night after posting threatening statements on his Facebook Page. The youth, a student at Central High School, made statements that he would kill fellow students and that he was serious.
The posting was brought to the attention of School Resource Officers and parents. Detectives assigned to the Police Department’s Youth Bureau immediately prepared a search warrant for the youth’s residence, seeking the youth and any possible weapons.
Shortly before 10 p.m. members of the department’s Emergency Services Unit, accompanied by Youth Bureau, Detective Bureau and School Resource Officers, executed the search warrant at the youth’s residence, according to Capt. James Viadero, the head of detectives. The youth was taken into custody without incident.
No weapons were found at the location as a result of the search. The youth was charged with first-degree threatening and will appear in Juvenile Court for the offense. No other students were involved in the incident. His name is not being released because of his age.
“We took immediate action as soon as we learned about these online threats,” said Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett Jr. “We take our duty to keep our children safe in school very seriously and I’m grateful for the fast actions of our officers and detectives.”
Superintendent of School Paul Vallas added: “Student safety is our highest priority and we take all potential threats very seriously. I am very grateful that with the consolidation of school security and city police we are now able to respond aggressively and appropriately to keep our students safe in situations such as this and offer my sincere thanks to the city police for their quick and effective response.”
BlackRockGuy // Jan 17, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Paul Vallas has cut guidance counselors and has done nothing about increasing things like drug counseling. If Vallas is allowed to stay this will only get worse but Vallas and Finch’s buddies in the education and construction industries will become wealthy.
AllforOne // Jan 17, 2013 at 11:21 pm
Good for the kids and parents who reported it; and great work for the swift action taken by the school and the police.
The Bridgeport Kid // Jan 18, 2013 at 12:52 am
Another punk kid who didn’t get enough quality time with Bert and Ernie.
Bridgeport educator // Jan 18, 2013 at 2:30 pm
It is beyond words the Principal of CHS sends out an email this morning saying “In order to keep the situation in check, we were advised that information regarding the threat should not be released.” Who advised him? And why keep such a potentially dangerous situation a secret? The Newtown staff saved kids and themselves because the PA system was on and teachers knew to stay in their classrooms. But in Bridgeport the teachers are not given available and possibly life-saving info. How many CHS teachers and students would have run out into the hall to see what was wrong if a student had shown up shouting and/or shooting? Were BPT law enforcement people absolutely certain this person they arrested was completely alone in his or her plans? How did they get the information?
If faculty were warned perhaps they would have been in a position to protect themselves and their students with a plan. “Keep the situation in check” for whom? Vallas and Finch are destroying the schools, decimating the social workers and counselors while closing alternative schools and denying out of building placements for disturbed kids. Yet those two have money for a $100k education liaison who has yet to even visit the schools. Not to mention signing many long-term contracts without the money to pay for them, including a new special education recordkeeping software program that was bought last year and has yet to be used. They buy too few textbooks that cannot be distributed w/o barcodes and then make no plan to get them bar-coded and distributed. Harding HS has no library or library staff. The Health careers program has fallen apart. Bassick’s Business Magnet has been shut down. Teachers throughout the district have no copy paper. Consumer Science classes have been dropped. Drama and music programs, once the pride of Bridgeport High Schools, get zero funding. Technology classes that lead to paying jobs are gone. No wonder Vallas walks out of BOE meetings, he has nothing to say and accepts no responsibility when it comes to the real questions of safety, class size, support staff, testing overload, electives, class schedules and supply budgets. When does that listening tour begin? Bridgeport parents get your schools back from this corporation. They are just using you for profit.