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Loyola Blakefield closed Monday for threat

Posted at 7:44 AM, Apr 30, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-01 04:05:50-04

School was closed for students at Loyola Blakefield in Towson after administrators say someone threatened the school on social media.

 

Few cars filled what, on any other given day, would be a full lot at Loyola Blakefield.

 

“At this point we have not found a single social media threat that has actually been a legitimate threat. We have debunked all of them thus far,” Officer Jennifer Peach, a Baltimore County Police spokeswoman said.

 

She says whatever threat was made, officers have been on it – weaving through the shares, reposts, and comments.

 

The school put out a statement saying in part “the closing provides room for the investigation to occur, while ensuring the safety of our school community.”

The Loyola Blakefield Administrative team made the decision to close school on Monday, April 30th to allow local law enforcement to assess the source and validity of threatening posts on social media.

The closing provides room for the investigation to occur, while ensuring the safety of our school community. At this time, we are working in conjunction with Baltimore County Police as they take the lead on evaluating the threat.

In order to avoid hindering their investigation, no additional details are available at this time. As in all cases, the safety of the members of our community remains the number one priority.

“The more they share them, the more they spread what is either gossip or panic. What we need people to do is stop that process of sharing theses posts and immediately call their school administrator,” Peach said.

 

In a climate where preventing school shootings have become a topic of national conversation, and with lawmakers here in the state.

 

Police say vigilance from both parents and students is necessary.

 

A few months ago, Loyola Blakefield dealt with another impromptu closing after threatening racist graffiti was discovered in a bathroom stall.

 

RELATED: Racist graffiti closes Loyola Blakefield for the day

 

“They don’t address any gender, any race, any religious type of group. So we don’t believe those incident are related at all,” Peach said.

 

While investigators don’t know if that threatening post was real or a joke, Peach says every time it happens, it’s costing taxpayer dollars.

 

“It’s probably something that teenagers really couldn’t care any less about, but when we get each one of these calls in, we investigate them thoroughly. A majority of them are coming in some time during the evening which means we are calling in resources, paying overtime to resources, to come in and begin and work all night long to try and discover the origin of these posts,” Peach said.

 

Baltimore County Police say regardless of if the threat is credible, a student could face charges.