Police: Teen accused of threatening school had access to multiple guns

SODA SPRINGS, Idaho (KIFI) - A teenage boy was arrested Sunday in Soda Springs after making threats against Soda Springs High School.

The Soda Springs Police Department reported that a 17-year-old made threats against the school on multiple social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

Police learned of the threat through a tip from Crime Stoppers.

After the arrest, police searched the teenager's home where they discovered and seized multiple firearms. The police chief of Soda Spring Police, Scott Shaw, stated that the boy had easy access to them.

“We believe the family was taking some steps to prevent it by keeping them in a safe and stuff like that,” Shaw said. However, we found over the years that the kids can get the combinations.” Shaw said, “Understand that you're taking the precautions, but you still have to go extra further in doing so to prevent your kids from getting access to them.”

This isn't the first school threat the department has had to deal with. In 2022, police investigated a threatening list of student names at a local middle school.

Police Chief Shaw said they treat every case as high risk, even if the threat is low.

“A lot of it is, your community relationships and stuff, you know, encouraging people to step forward, to present that information,” Shaw said. “The world we live in, you don't have a choice or you don't have the ability to say, oh, I think it's not serious, and let's not treat it as serious. And then, you know, you don't want to do that and then have it become serious. So it's easier for us just to say every one of them is the same. Every one of them is a high threat and treat all of them as such.” 

Police say the boy was acting alone and there is no further threat to the school or public.

The juvenile is being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Pocatello.