Threats made on social media against two area schools
The Vienna School District was made aware of a threatening social media post Sunday morning, June 23.
Vienna High School superintendent Joshua W. Stafford shared the following report about the incident in an email on Sunday:
This morning prior to 9:00 a.m. the Vienna school district was made aware of a threatening social media post.
The school district immediately notified school resource officers, the Vienna Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.
The investigation led to the involvement of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Carbondale Police Department and school resource officers from Jackson County.
These agencies also involved the Marion FBI field office, DCFS and the respective state’s attorneys from each county.
After tracking down the individual that was being represented by what proved to be a fake account the law enforcement departments determined that no credible threat exists regarding this incident.
The law enforcement agencies not only interviewed the individual, but were able to do voluntary searches of the individual’s property and also secured data from the social media platform to corroborate the story.
Since getting the information about the Facebook post Officers David Stewart, Eileen Rochford, Carl Manley, Jon Gulley, Bobbi Baker, Chief Jim Miller, Deputies Scott Sparks, Aubrey Edwards, Sheriff Pete Sopczak, along with Vienna principal John Giffin, Vienna superintendent Joshua Stafford and Johnson County States Attorney Tambra Cain have been diligently working with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Carbondale Police Department, DCFS, the Illinois State Police’s Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (STIC) and the Marion FBI field office.
Jackson County and Carbondale have been involved since it was also discovered that the fake social media account had also posted threats to the Carbondale High School social media page and the Carbondale New School page. Both of those schools’ officials were involved as well.
It was determined that the fake account representing the person local to the region actually originated from a foreign country. This evidence will be referred to the United States Attorney for further consideration.
“We are fortunate to have great people that care and will work all day on a Sunday to ensure the safety of our communities. This is a great example of ‘see something, say something’ and the diligence of our law enforcement community to actively follow through. It is an even better example of a multi agency cooperation and response,” said school superintendent Joshua Stafford.