Northwestern High principal: Threat leads to stepped-up police presence

Northwestern High School students might notice heightened police presence on campus Friday after a threatening message was discovered on a bathroom wall at the school earlier in the week.

Principal James Blake sent home a letter on Thursday warning parents about the threat discovered Tuesday, which referenced a bomb and Thursday’s date, but administrators kept the incident quiet until Thursday to protect the investigation.

“In the world of social media,” Blake wrote, “it is difficult to get in front of a situation in order to gather credible information before the trail becomes disturbed by misinformation.”

The school resource officer was alert to the message written on a bathroom wall on Tuesday. Rock Hill School District spokeswoman Elaine Baker said an assessment team from the school district and Rock Hill police determined the threat was “non-credible,” but police still patroled the school grounds Wednesday night and extra officers were on campus Thursday to look for anything suspicious.

Baker said resource officers from neighboring Rawlinson Road Middle School and the Applied Technology Center will be on campus Friday as an extra precaution.

She warned there will be “serious consequences” when the person who made the threat is identified.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Northwestern High principal: Threat leads to stepped-up police presence."