Holyoke – Police have tracked a junior accused of making a threat to Holyoke High School on social media.
Students first saw the threat last week and notified Manuel Rivera and Juan Cruz School Resource Agents on office, said Holyoke police chief Brian Keenan.
They immediately began investigating the threat, made on Instagram, and determined that it was not credible. The original publication was deleted, but it has been passed through the students and the others in the school community, said Keenan.
“The detectives spoke to the minor with a father present to reinforce the gravity of publishing any type of online threat,” Keenan said.
Police did not publish any information on the suspect due to the accused’s age or the nature of the post.
“Our department deals with any threat to our community seriously and thoroughly investigates each situation to determine if any threat is credible. In this case, luckily it was not,” said Keenan. “The safety and well-being of our students and community is paramount. I appreciate the surveillance of the students who put this position on the care of our officers and, to do so, the officers could quickly identify the person responsible for the post.”
Mayor Joshua Garcia thanked the police for his fast action and strengthened that no student or staff was never in danger.
“I want to secure our community, students, staff and teachers that there is no continuous threat and that this publication was not considered credible,” he said. “If there was a situation where we received a threat and considered credible or if it were unclear, we would alert our community immediately.”