The night-owls from the twitter-sphere of Perry Meridian saw tweets on Sunday Jan. 10 that generated immediate concern from parents and students alike for the day to come.

“This weekend I finally planned everything for this godd—-d school,” read the first of the tweets posted by anonymous twitter user “Sad and Confused.”

The second tweet referenced a need for counselling. The third a gun. The fourth pipe bombs.

Tweets like “keep your kids at home” and “my kids aren’t going” were accompanied with the hashtag PMHS after word of these seemingly violent  tweets started to spread on social media.

The tweets posted by “Sad and Confused” were threats being made directly at Perry Meridian, and they were posted with same PMHS hashtag that concerned residents later used to bring attention of the tweets to the school.

Superintendent Dr. Thomas Little says he took the threats very seriously. He met with homeland security to discuss what should be done, and ultimately it was settled that school would remain in session with added security measures for the day.  

Perry Meridian junior Sydney McQueary who, along with other students, chose not to go to school Monday because of the threats, says that she was scared by the entire situation.

“It honestly freaked me out a lot…,” McQueary said. “I mean if some kids wouldn’t have found the tweets then who knows what could’ve happened. But we’re all glad that they caught who it was and everything is being taken care of.”

According to a police advisory, the person who posted these tweets has since been identified as a 15-year-old male. He was first brought in by police for questioning only to be released back to his parents, but he was later brought back and arrested on Jan. 13. The police ensured the safety of the students at Perry Meridian and, all in all, nothing serious ended up happening.

The IMPD accompanied this advisory with a reminder that sending threats out to places through social media is risky and dangerous, and to do so can lead to criminal charges.
“These type of threats are not funny and will be investigated,” the advisory said.