Lake Orion High School student arrested, charged for allegedly threatening to ‘shoot up’ the school, police say

By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Just two days after the fatal shooting of four students at Oxford High School, a 15-year-old sophomore at Lake Orion High School was arrested for allegedly saying he would “shoot up” the school if he could get a gun.

Detectives arrested the student about 6:30 p.m. at his Orion Township home, an incident report from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office stated.

The student was arrested for making a terrorist threat is being held at Oakland Chidren’s Village.

The student made the alleged comments online the day after an Oxford High School sophomore, identified as Ethan Crumbley, shot and killed four Oxford students and injured seven others, including a teacher.

On Friday, the Lake Orion student appeared via Zoom before the Oakland County Probate Referee Michael Hand, who authorized a misdemeanor petition charging the student with threatening to commit violence with a firearm against students or employees on school property.

A conviction on this charge carries up to a year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

An Oakland County Sheriff’s Office school resource deputy received information about the threat and the arrest was made.

“Several guns were removed from the student’s home at the request of Detectives and are being held in another location for safe keeping,” the report said.

According to the police report, the student said he had been planning to get revenge against someone for several years.

The Lake Orion student’s preliminary examination will resume on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m.

Lake Orion Community Schools, which canceled school on both Thursday and Friday of last week due to safety concerns, and also canceled in-person schooling at the high school level for this week, is not alone in receiving threats in the wake of the shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30.

“School districts around the state have closed because of concerns for student and staff safety,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

“We have seen first-hand the tragic consequences when these statements turn into action. Some may think it is a joke. It is not. Others see it as a way to get out of school. Or, it may be a real precursor that we need to intervene and prevent. We are aggressively investigating each of these threats and will seek to hold anyone accountable who makes such threats.”

Bouchard said at least 100 threats or threatening social media posts have emerged since Tuesday’s shooting, with more than 60 local school campuses canceling classes on Thursday.

Many districts, including Lake Orion, remained closed on Friday.

 

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