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ELKINS - Classes went on as usual at Elkins Middle School Friday despite a potential threat that was made by a student after school hours on Thursday evening, officials said.
Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon confirmed that an online threat was made and that deputies were executing a search warrant at the suspect’s home Friday afternoon.
“We are executing a search warrant for the house today where the student lives,” Elbon told The Inter-Mountain on Friday. “We are going to take phones, electronic devices and other stuff like that. We are working this investigation with the Prosecutor’s office. There will be charges and we will go from there.”
Elbon said that the student in question has been expelled for the remainder of the school year after a threat was made on a social media site Thursday evening.
“There was a post or something that people took a screenshot of and it had to do with shooting up Elkins Middle School,” Elbon said. “Information about the post started coming into our Prevention Resource Officers late in the evening yesterday.
"Most of the information started coming in after school on Thursday. Kids started telling their parents about it and the parents started reaching out to us. The guys were working on it last evening and made sure the student making the threats was secure.”
Elbon said all three of the county’s PRO officers – Danny Pennington, Rocky Hebb and Ethan Carr – were stationed at Elkins Middle School on Friday.
“We had all three PRO officers and myself at the Middle School today,” Elbon said. “We were there for protection and to make sure there were no issues.
"I put something out late Thursday night that the school would be safe and students could come to school with no issues. I saw some comments where a lot of people didn’t send their kids today, but they have to kind of trust the system, because I have professional guys working for me and they know what they are doing. They are going to protect people and make sure everyone is safe.”
Elbon said the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office takes these kinds of school situations extremely seriously.
“With these school threats, if we can get the evidence to charge kids with this stuff, we are charging them,” Elbon said. “Most of the time they get sent to juvenile detention. They need to realize if they do something like this, they are not going to live around here anymore because they are going to be gone. They need to understand that it is serious, we take it seriously, and we will prosecute them.”
Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly released a statement on the Randolph County School’s Facebook page.
“I want to inform you that school administrators and law enforcement are actively addressing a recent situation involving a student who made threats at Elkins Middle School,” Dilly wrote in the post. “Please know that we take all safety concerns seriously and are working closely with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office and local police to ensure the safety of all students and staff…
"We encourage open communication and ask that you report any safety concerns immediately to school officials or law enforcement. Thank you for your cooperation and support in keeping Elkins Middle School safe.”