A teenager from Alabama was arrested on Friday after she allegedly sent a school shooting threat through a smartphone application. The authorities said that the high school student reportedly sent the message to get extra time to study for a test.
The threatening message comes in the wake of a deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old boy gunned down 17 people, mostly students and teachers.
According to WBRC reports, 18-year-old Emily Nicole Wilson has been accused of threatening her high school by sending an emoji of a toy gun along with a date and time through a text messaging app called “TextNow.”
Wilson is a senior student at Vinemont High School and reportedly sent the threatening message on Wednesday to her school.
The authorities arrested Wilson and she has been charged with “making a terrorist threat,” according to reports. This is a Class C Felony in the state of Alabama and carries a minimum sentence of one year and one day. The sentence, however, does not exceed more than two years in jail.
Reports state that if Wilson is convicted of the crime, then she may also be charged with nearly $15,000 in fine.
The Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry, on Friday, addressed the issue and said: “This is a very serious situation.”
The authorities later revealed that the teenager thought that her threatening message would result in a shutdown of the school, which would eventually buy her some time to study for an upcoming test, reports state.
“When we make the decision to do something to give us time to take a text, well guess what, the end result is you get arrested and you go to jail for making a terroristic threat,” Gentry said, according to the Daily Mail.
The Superintendent of Cullman County Schools, Shane Barnette, on Friday released a statement saying: “It comes down to a poor decision made by a teenager that it was going to be a short-term, get out of class thing.” Barnette added that he has not yet spoken to the teenager.
Another student from Good Hope Middle School in Cullman was also arrested by the authorities on Thursday for posting a threatening message on Facebook. Since the student was a minor, his name has not been revealed.
Authorities across the United States have taken note of a sudden surge in school shooting threats just days after the mass shooting in Florida. The threats also prompted a temporary lockdown of some schools in New York and Ohio.
