A 15-year-old boy from Brandywine, Maryland, was arrested on Friday after allegedly posting threats on Instagram directed at several Washington, D.C. schools. The post, which displayed images of weapons along with a list of D.C. schools, prompted a swift response from law enforcement. D.C. police, after being alerted to the threat on Thursday evening, increased their presence at schools across the District.
Following an investigation, the teenager was charged with making threats to kidnap or injure a person. Police stated that the teen had found the image online and edited it to include the names of local schools before reposting it. Authorities confirmed that the boy did not have a firearm at the time of his arrest, and no violent incidents were reported as a result of the threat. The specific names of the schools mentioned in the post were not disclosed by the police.
The arrest is part of a troubling rise in school-related threats, which have surged since the September 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, where two teachers and two students were killed. In the D.C. region, multiple similar threats have been reported recently.
In Baltimore County, Maryland, a 15-year-old student from Lansdowne High School was arrested on Friday for making social media threats and additional threats over the phone directed at his school. He was charged with disrupting school activities and making threats against staff and students.
In Harrisonburg, Virginia, police also arrested a 16-year-old student after learning of a detailed threat to “shoot up” Harrisonburg High School.
A separate threat, believed to have originated in Kansas City, Missouri, circulated on social media and was spotted by students in Prince George’s County, Maryland, warning of possible violence at local schools, including Central and Crossland high schools.
Authorities are urging parents to talk to their children about how to handle social media threats, advising them to inform school officials or police instead of reposting threatening content, as doing so can cause unnecessary panic and disruption.
