Police investigate threat against Luray High School

LURAY, VA – Around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Page County Sheriff’s Office received information of a potential threat of harm against the students, faculty and staff of Luray High School.

As a result, according to a media release from Major Phillip Baker, of the Page County Sheriff’s Office, that office, along with Page County Public Schools Administration, took precautionary measures to ensure the safety of everyone in the school.

While an official statement did not clarify what those measures were, several parents have said that their children were temporarily evacuated from the high school to the middle school.

With the assistance of Luray Police Department, the Virginia State Police, Albemarle County Police Department and Federal Protective Reserve, officers were able to determine that the school was safe, and operational control was turned back over to the School Administration.

With the tragedies that have unfolded around the nation related to school safety, Major Baker said that the Page County Sheriff’s Office and the Page County Public Schools Administration respond to any threat in a manner that maximizes the safety of our children and our communities.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with PCPS officials to investigate the origin of this threat, and will take appropriate action once the investigation is complete. While the threat turned out to be unfounded, with the tragedies that have unfolded around the nation, the Page County Sheriff’s Office takes any threat seriously.

This is not the first incident to occur in the Shenandoah Valley in recent days. In Harrisonburg, a child was charged Tuesday with a felony after making a social media threat that turned out to be a hoax.