KEARNS, Utah — Two 14-year-olds have been questioned after threats made through social media forced a public charter school to cancel classes at its Kearns and Magna campuses Monday.
Entheos Academy announced Sunday it was canceling school following the threats.
One of the threats was directed at the Kearns campus and named specific students, according to the school's Facebook page. The parents of those students were notified following the threat. Police said a separate threat was made toward a specific student at the school's Magna campus through Instagram.
School officials said police have identified two juvenile suspects.
“This is a situation where we are always going to figure out who made the threat," said Lt. Shane Manwaring with the Unified Police Department. "There’s too much evidence out there, digital footprints and so forth, so to track them down, in this case, we had him tracked down before the evening was over, we knew who it was and we’d interviewed him.”
Police say the 14-year-old boy questioned in regards to the Kearns threat, who was not a student at the school, does not have access to firearms and officials don't believe the threat was credible. The 14-year-old girl who allegedly made the Magna threat was a former student at the school, and police are still investigating.
Despite their age and the timing of the threats, the teens are not connected.
According to the school, a parent and student made police aware of the threats and that authorities are determining whether there are other suspects involved and if the threats were credible.
"Student safety is our top priority and we are therefore canceling school tomorrow," the school wrote in an email to parents. "Please keep your children at home while the police investigate."
A department spokesperson told FOX 13 News Sunday night that the threat originated on Snapchat, and a parent called it in.
"If you are aware of anything concerning being posted on social media, please contact your school administrators," Entheos leadership wrote in Sunday's announcement.
Entheos is a free, public charter school for students in Kindergarten through 8th grade.
This comes two weeks after a school shooting scare was spread across social media that was believed by some to be targeted at Kearns High School. Police eventually determined that it was not credible and identified students who were behind the false threat.
