COVINGTON, La. — A teen girl was arrested for terrorizing on Wednesday after sending text threats to students at a private high school in Covington, according to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office.
The 14-year-old girl was issued a summons for terrorizing and was released to a parent on a custodial agreement to appear in court.
Deputies said the incident happened on Tuesday evening when they were called to the high school. A student said they received text messages from an unknown number.
"The text messages included threats of violence towards the recipient along with a photograph of an unknown individual holding a firearm," a release said.
Then on Wednesday morning, another student from the same school said they got "similar threats of violence" from the same phone number as the first student.
The case was then given to the sheriff's office Persons Crimes Unit and the teen was arrested.
Detectives said the teen admitted to sending the messages to try to scare the students and "had no intention to carry out the threats made."
The photo of the gun was a common picture on the internet. Detectives determined the teen did not have access to any weapons.
“We have made it very clear that we will take threats like this seriously,” Sheriff Randy Smith said. “We will continue to work with our schools and investigate any and all threats. Parents, I urge you, to please speak with your children about the seriousness of making threatening statements even if they have no intentions on acting on them.”
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