Cedar Middle School placed on lockdown; juvenile charged with alleged threats on social media

CEDAR CITY — Cedar Middle School was briefly placed on lockdown status Thursday morning as police investigated an alleged social media threat.

Cedar City Police Department Sgt. Justin Ludlow said officers responded to the school just before 9 a.m. to a report concerning threats posted on social media.

One juvenile suspect was questioned and charged with making threats, Ludlow said, and the student has been suspended from school. Although the threat was treated as serious in nature, the school was never in immediate danger.

“There is no evidence (the student) had the ability to follow through with the threat,” he said.

Iron County School District issued a statement to Cedar City News saying the lockdown lasted five minutes while police located the student who made the post to social media, and only the front doors of the school were locked.

Due to a safety concern over a social media post, Cedar Middle School went into a brief lockdown. The front doors of the school were locked while Cedar City Police investigated,” said Shauna Lund, school district communications and foundation coordinator. “There is no active threat to the school at this time. All students are safe and school is continuing as normal.”

Both Iron County School District and Cedar City police declined to comment on the nature of the post, or which platform it was shared on, due to the ongoing investigation.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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