2nd juvenile detained in connection with school threat; 16% of HJH students skip school Monday.
Hours after a student was detained by Stephenville police on Sunday for threatening a school shooting at Henderson Junior High, a second juvenile was charged in the incident.
Captain James Gresham with the Stephenville Police Department told Beneath the Surface News that both juveniles have been charged with making a terroristic threat, a third degree felony, after making comments on TikTok that there would be a shooting at HJH on Monday.
“This was taken very seriously from the moment we learned that a threat had been made,” Gresham said. “This was a high-priority case from the beginning; detectives never stopped working on it until the juveniles were identified.”
Gresham said DPS experts helped identify the suspects, whose TikTok user names did not coincide with their real names.
And while SPD placed extra police officers on campuses across Stephenville ISD on Monday, it wasn’t enough to curb the fears of some parents.
SISD Superintendent Dr. Eric Cederstrom said 16% of Henderson’s student body was absent on Monday.
Meanwhile, the decision to send the suspects home to their parents rather than a juvenile detention facility has reportedly been unpopular among some law enforcement officials, BTS News has learned.
"(The suspects) were released on ‘conditions of release,’ which is equivalent of a bond for an adult,” Erath County Attorney Lisa Pence said. “They will be monitored closely by Juvenile Probation.
“These threats are taken very seriously by all agencies involved and are made on a case-by-case basis.”
Gresham said the decision on whether the juveniles will ever be allowed to return to campus will be up to school officials.
