The Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office is reporting that a 13-year-old male student who had been suspended from Page Middle School has been taken into custody after allegedly making multiple threats of violence targeting others, the GCSO reported on Thursday, Sept. 1.

The sheriff’s office was notified by school resource officers. The threats were made via social media and disseminated to a group of students along with images of weapons and other photographs that were intended to place students in fear, a GCSO release stated.

Investigators and SROs immediately began interviewing students and collecting evidence. The student who disseminated the threats was positively identified and determined to be at his home in Gloucester County. Investigators responded to the residence and, after on-scene follow-up investigation, placed the juvenile in custody. The juvenile’s parents were contacted at the scene.

The arrested juvenile was taken to Juvenile Intake, where investigators met with an intake officer and obtained petitions and a detention order. The juvenile is charged with violations of §18.2-60 (Threats of death or bodily injury on school property) and §18.2-427 (Use of profane, threatening, or indecent language over public airway).

The juvenile was placed in detention at the Merrimac Center pending court proceedings. Due to the age of the accused, the juvenile’s name and photograph will not be released.

 “The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the students who came forward and shared these threats with SROs,” the release stated. “It takes our entire community to keep our children safe. We take threats like these very seriously and will always thoroughly investigate and prosecute any threat to children attending Gloucester County schools.”

This information was transmitted to Gloucester parents by school superintendent Dr. Walter Clemons through an all-call email message.