Skyline High School verbal threat resolved without evacuation

At 4:50 p.m., Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 8), a recorded call from Warren County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Melody Sheppard alerted families of students that a threat at Skyline High School that day had been resolved without incident.

Have high school bomb threat copycats begun to emerge in Warren County Public Schools? A verbal threat at Skyline High School was resolved without incident on Feb. 8. Photo Roger Bianchini/Courtesy CassAviation

Sheppard stated that a student had threatened to bring a dangerous device to the school.  She added that school system officials believed the situation had been resolved and that no actual physical threat was ever posed on school property.

While Sheppard offered no additional detail, a source inside the school said there were rumors of a threat made by a known male student by 4^th period classes. Fourth Period runs through the early afternoon, after lunch.

During the Jan. 27 hoax device incident at WCHS, students were evacuated from the high school, lower portion of photo, to nearby Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School. Photo Roger Bianchini/Courtesy CassAviation

Informed of the threat by another student, several students surmised the student that had made the threat “was joking.”  However, the student conveying the information to his classmates countered that the student making the threat had appeared very serious, making an oath to carry it out.

Perhaps ironically, this incident was unfolding as currently-suspended and incarcerated Warren County High School student Caleb Sutphin was poised for a 1:30 p.m. bond hearing in Warren County General District Court (see related story).  As an 18-year-old student, Sutphin was charged as an adult in the January 27 hoax device bomb threat at WCHS.

No further information was available on the Skyline incident, including the age of the would-be perpetrator.  However, with five grades currently at the county high schools, there is a 5-1 chance the student reported to have made a verbal threat at Skyline today was under 18.  So, were the student to be charged in the incident there is a good chance the case would be heard behind closed doors in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.