LASARA — A 12-year-old girl was taken to a detention center after making a terroristic threat at the Lasara school campus, officials said.
The girl is the third Lasara student — and the youngest — in the past month to be held at the Darrel Hester Juvenile Justice Center in San Benito.
The girl “made the threat in front of a couple teachers” Monday, Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence said.
Spence declined to disclose the nature of the threat.
“One student has been removed from our campus at this time,” Superintendent Sara Alvarado wrote Monday in a letter to parents. “While no one was in immediate danger, the threat was deemed to have merit and administrative action was taken immediately.”
Last week, two Lasara students involved in previous threats were released from the detention center, Spence said.
On Feb. 26, officials investigated a threat made by a 15-year-old student the previous week.
At that time, Alvarado described the threat as “false.”
A day later, parents expressed their concerns in a meeting with Alvarado and school board members.
That week, a 16-year-old student made another threat, Spence said.
After authorities investigated the Lasara cases, the two boys involved were ordered held at the detention center.
It was the first time “in a long, long time” that students have been sent to a detention center, Spence said.
Spence said authorities are getting tougher on students who make threats in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead at a South Florida school.
In the Florida case, officials apparently failed to follow up on that threat.
Across the country, schools are wrestling with responses to students’ threats in the aftermath of the Florida shooting.
In the Rio Grande Valley, threats have been reported in schools in Harlingen, San Benito, Raymondville and other cities since the Florida shooting.
