Update: 16-year-old charged in connection to threat at high school
UPDATE (5:40 p.m.): Riverhead Town police have arrested a 16-year-old high school student for making a 911 call reporting a “possible act of violence,” according to a press release.
Police received the 911 call at 9:41 a.m. and dispatchers isolated the call and determined it was made from a cell phone within Riverhead High School.
Patrol units initiated an investigation with school administrators and security, at which time the district buildings were placed in a lockout. Detectives were then notified and also responded to the school. Police determined the 911 call was isolated involving two individual students in attendance at the school.
Interviews were conducted at police headquarters with “all involved persons,” police said.
Police then charged a 16-year-old boy, whose name was not released, with one count of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor.
No students were injured or in any immediate danger as a result of the 911 call, police said.
The lockout at the schools ended after about an hour.
UPDATE (11:13 a.m.): The district said at 11:20 a.m. the lockout was lifted. “Schools will proceed with a normal day. Thank you for your cooperation as we handled this matter,” a message on the district website said.
ORIGINAL POST: Riverhead Central School District schools were placed in a lockout Tuesday morning as police investigate a race-related threat, according to district officials.
In a robocall to parents around 10:30 a.m., Superintendent Dr. Aurelia Henriquez said the police department had informed district officials that a “racist threat was made against students at Riverhead High School.”
District officials did not specify what the threat was, or how police learned about it.
Riverhead police are currently investigating the threat, she said, and the lockout prohibits any visitors from entering school buildings. More information would be provided as it becomes available, the superintendent said in the robocall.
Riverhead Town police confirmed an investigation, and said the lockout was part of protocol, but declined to provide additional information.
