A student at Cochrane High School is facing charges after he allegedly made a threat against the school on social media on Friday.
On June 4, RCMP received a complaint that a 15-year-old boy posted a picture of himself with some shell casings on Snapchat with the message “Don’t go to school on Monday” attached to it.
“It was a picture that we deemed to be threatening in nature,” said RCMP Sgt. Jeff Campbell. “The photo is such that we deemed it to be serious enough to enter into a criminal investigation and lay charges.”
Police identified the youth and he was arrested and charged with one count of uttering threats.
He has been released into his parent's custody under conditions. He is not to have contact with firearms or ammunition and is only allowed to use his personal computer for school purposes until the end of the school year.
“Even if this is done as a joke, the consequences are severe because in this day and age we don’t take these threats or pranks lightly and the consequences, as this 15-year-old has found out, are extremely severe,” said Sgt. Campbell.
Officers visited the school on Monday morning to explain the situation to students.
Police say they have no evidence to suggest that anyone other than the accused was involved in the incident.
The boy will appear in Cochrane Provincial Court on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.
