Danville school shooting threat may have been sparked by bullying

14-year-old arrested, charged with a felony

DANVILLE, Va. – Online comments now suggest the social media threat police said was made by a 14-year-old girl over the weekend may have been in retaliation for bullying.

"I'm aware of those comments on social media. We're probably not going to talk about that from our point of view on the investigation," said Danville Police Department Lt. Mike Wallace.

Wallace reminded kids and parents that that is not an appropriate way to deal with bullying and threats in general about a school shooting are never appropriate.

"If a child has an issue, with bullying or whatever else, I would encourage them to talk to their parents, somebody responsible, someone at the school, or even us," Wallace said. "That's what we're here for." 

The threat was found to be not credible, but Wallace wouldn't say if the teen actually had access to a gun.

"That's part of the investigation that we won't get into," Wallace said.

Danville Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stan Jones said he is not aware of any evidence that the threat was, in fact, made as a direct result of being bullied.

"The administrative teams at the schools are already involved in investigating the accusations of bullying," Jones explained.

He said the student's exact punishment hasn't been determined yet, but she will "not be coming back to school any time soon."

He also wants students to know that the school district has a phone number that they can text and anonymously report issues they're dealing with.

That number is 79516.

Students need to text dpstip and their school's name, followed by the message they want to send.

"If this student was being bullied, has she leveraged that? Has she called? Has she informed through that process that she was being bullied? To my knowledge, she hasn't done that," said Jones.

As of Wednesday, the 14-year-old is being held at W.W. Moore Juvenile Detention Center in Danville.