Van Horn Student Charged After Threatening School

VAN HORN— A student at Van Horn High School has been arrested after making a terroristic threat toward the school last week.

The Culberson County Allamoore ISD has released information regarding a junior high student who made threats toward the school. The student was ultimately removed from class and charged with making terroristic threats. No weapons were recovered from the student.

On Facebook, the CCAISD issued a statement about the situation:

CCAISD follows a practice of addressing threats made to students or staff that is designed to be quick to ensure student and staff safety.

On 5-15-23, a CCAISD student made a verbal threat towards two teachers and a general threat towards students. The threat was reported immediately by our students to the front office. The administration immediately pulled the student from class and did a search of the student, backpacks, locker, etc. to first establish that the student has no means to harm anyone. This happened in a matter of minutes. No weapons or means to harm anyone were found.

CCAISD takes all threats seriously and understands that they carry severe consequences. Any student making a threat is suspended from school for three days and then placed in ISS for 3 days. Based on the investigation that CCAISD conducts, that can be extended. CCAISD then contacts our local law enforcement and the student's parents. Law enforcement then takes over. Law enforcement is best equipped to explain the next steps they take, but I am aware that it is a very detailed plan that involves a medical assessment, a physiological assessment, and a Threat Assessment. Law enforcement quite often presses charges, and the legal system then follows its path.

For the next several days you will see an increased law enforcement presence in and around the school. As many of you have witnessed, our Sheriff's Department, Department of Public Safety, and our Border Patrol come to the school regularly. We have an extremely high law enforcement presence in our school on a regular basis. We get very few threats during the school year if any, but our students, staff, and parents do a very good job of reporting the threats.

While there have been no actual threats carried out at CCAISD, we treat all verbal threats as real. Our students do not always understand how serious their words are and may say something that causes us to react quickly and decisively, and their words carry severe consequences.

CCAISD joins with our parents in keeping our school safe.

Ken Baugh,

Superintendent CCAIS

Several schools in Texas, here in the Concho Valley, the South Plains, and other areas, have dealt with threats over the past couple weeks with the anniversary of the Uvalde Shooting this month.