Two juveniles arrested in connection to Box Elder school threats

TREMONTON, Utah — Authorities say two juveniles have been arrested after allegedly making threats that forced several Box Elder County schools to move classes online Monday.

Police said “the threats that were made were attempts at being funny, which were not funny,” and they plan to recommend criminal charges to the Box Elder County Attorney’s Office.

Bomb-sniffing dogs combed through each of the schools involved in Monday’s shutdown, which police said started from a message scratched into a bathroom stall at Bear River High School.

The Snapchat image, which quickly spread across social media, showed a drawing of a gun with the date 12/13/21 etched above it.

Cassie Jensen said she heard about it after her son saw it posted on social media on Friday.

“And it was disturbing as a parent, I’m not gonna lie. We decided then that we were going to keep him home Monday,” Jensen said.

Box Elder schools move online as police investigate potential threats

Police say they initially caught a lead, thanks to surveillance video from inside the school.

“Kind of had a suspect and thought we had everything cleared up, and last night sometime we started getting more social media stuff saying there was more stuff possibly going on,” said Tremonton-Garland Chief of Police Nick Nessen.

Police originally planned to hold classes with an extra police presence Monday, but Nessen said the post circulated.

Box Elder School District Superintendent Steven Carlson said two additional threats showed up on social media, which he believes were likely copycats.

“One with a young man, took a video of himself with a gun in his hand, and another one had a picture of a young man with a banner across there,” Carlson said.

Police obtained search warrants and conducted several interviews Monday before taking the two juveniles into custody. No evidence of any explosives was found by bomb-sniffing dogs and authorities said classes will resume “with additional safety procedures in place. The police department will be providing extra security at all of the schools in the area as we work to investigate all evidence and tips that we receive.”