White City middle school shooting threat deemed not credible

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, September 10, 2024

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A student allegedly threatened to carry out a shooting at White Mountain Middle School in White City on Tuesday, but Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies determined the threat was not credible.

A student who overheard the threat “did the good thing and they reported it to the school right away,” Aaron Lewis, a public information officer with the sheriff’s office, said in an interview with the Rogue Valley Times.

The school contacted the sheriff’s office at about 8:45 a.m. after learning that a student said they planned an attack at 2 p.m. Two deputies responded, interviewed witnesses, the juvenile suspect and the suspect’s parents, and found no evidence of a plan or means to make good on the threat, Lewis said.

The school sent the student home, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. After the incident, the Eagle Point School District sent out an email saying that a disciplinary team is “taking action towards the individual who made the threat.”

The sheriff’s office increased its presence at the school on Tuesday “just to make sure parents and students feel a little safer,” Lewis said.

Criminal charges are unlikely to be filed, Lewis said, but the investigation is ongoing.

The sheriff’s office declined to release information on the suspect.

Lewis urged anyone who learns of a threat to call Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon dispatch at 541-776-7206, or 911 in the case of an imminent threat.

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