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BLANDING — A 17-year-old boy who allegedly claimed he forced a school in New Mexico to go into lockdown by posting a threat was recently convicted of making a similar threat in Utah.
And police say it happened just two days after the boy was released from juvenile detention for making other threats.
The boy was with friends on Feb. 1 when he "asked the two if they wanted to send a bomb threat to the school on Feb. 7," according to documents from 7th District Juvenile Court. The friends "got scared and asked him, 'Dude, do you need help?' He states he was trying to be funny."
When the teen talked about making the threat against San Juan High School, his friends said his "lack of emotion and his behavior made them nervous" to the point that they immediately told a parent what happened. "They stated that they were nervous and scared enough that they were both shaking," a search warrant affidavit states.
The friends said the boy had also "bragged" about posting a threat on social media against a high school in Farmington, New Mexico, forcing the school to shut down on Jan. 17. Police in New Mexico said in January that they had taken the person who posted the threat into custody, but there is no indication in court documents whether the Utah teen was connected to the New Mexico incident.
On Feb. 16, the boy was convicted in juvenile court of making threats against a school in the Utah case, a class A misdemeanor, and marijuana possession, a class B misdemeanor, according to court records. He was ordered to remain in detention.
The teen was arrested for the school threat just two days after his previous stay in juvenile detention over allegations of making other threats, according to court records. In that case, he was arrested on Jan. 26 for posting "a photo of him holding a handgun threatening (two) male juveniles," the warrant states.
KSL.com is not naming the boy at this time.
