NAPLES, Utah, Sept. 17, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — School officials in Uintah County issued a district-wide lockdown Tuesday after a student received a threatening text message.
The 1:15 p.m. lockdown at the district’s 11 schools was lifted after the Vernal Police Department placed the sender of the threatening message in custody, the Uintah School District said in an online message posted just after 3:30 p.m.
A student at Uintah Middle School had received the threatening text message from a phone number they did not recognize, the district said. “The student showed the text message to a school administrator, who immediately notified the school resource officer.
“Uintah Schools Superintendent Dr. Rick Woodford implemented a district-wide lockdown as a precaution, based on the nature of the threat contained in the text message.”
Officials were able to quickly identify the individual who sent the text as a student who attends Vernal Middle School. The student was not in school today. The message did not specify a school.
The district-wide lockdown was lifted at about 1:50 p.m., after police notified the superintendent that the VMS student was in custody.
“I’m grateful to the Uintah Middle School student who chose to quickly tell someone about the threat they received today,” Superintendent Woodford said.
“We encourage all of our students to immediately talk to a trusted adult or use the SafeUT app if they are threatened or know about a threat,” Woodford said. “It’s the right thing to do, because keeping things like this a secret can have dire consequences.”
The district’s 11 schools include a high school, two middle schools, seven elementary schools and a pre-school. All questions, the district said, about the police investigation should be directed to the Vernal Police Department.
