A student is expected to be charged after making a bomb threat toward a school district in Ingleside Thursday afternoon, causing after-school activities to be canceled.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded Thursday afternoon to Big Hollow Middle School, 26051 West Nippersink Road in Ingleside, for a report of a bomb threat.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said sheriff’s deputies, detectives and school officials worked together to investigate.
Big Hollow School District 38 Superintendent Bob Gold said in a message to parents that the school’s office received a call from an unknown person stating that he was planning to blow the schools up at 11:45 a.m. Friday.
Investigators found there was no evidence of a bomb at the middle school.
The school was not placed on lockdown but all after-school activities were canceled for the evening.
Sheriff’s detectives worked quickly to track the source of the threat, Covelli said.
Detectives learned a device belonging to a Big Hollow school student was the origin of the threat.
The phone call that was made was tracked to the student’s home, Covelli said.
Deputies made contact with the student. The boy was not in attendance at school on Thursday.
Covelli said an investigation revealed there was no indication the student had any means to carry out his threat.
“Law enforcement has spoken to the student, and we are very confident based on the evidence that there is no real threat to our students and staff at Big Hollow,” Gold said.
The superintendent said the student’s actions caused “serious disruption” to the school community and the district would be “pursuing all possible legal and school disciplinary measures in response to this disruption.”
The juvenile is being referred on criminal charges to the juvenile court system.
The sheriff’s office will have a presence around the school campus as a result of the threat.
“There is no reason to believe that our students and staff are not safe to attend school tomorrow,” Gold said.