Cops: Lindenhurst student arrested for school threat

A 17-year-old Lindenhurst student was arrested Thursday after allegedly making a threat against a Western Suffolk BOCES school in East Farmingdale, Suffolk County police and the Lindenhurst school district superintendent said.

The boy was arrested after he made a verbal, nonspecific threat while at Wilson Technical Aviation Center, police said Friday. He was charged with making a threat of mass harm and will be arraigned in family court at a later date.

In an email Thursday to village residents, Lindenhurst school district Superintendent Daniel Giordano wrote that the teen, who is a Lindenhurst student, made a “threatening comment” that was not directed at the school district, and district students and staff were not impacted.

“Any individual who makes a comment of a threatening nature will face swift disciplinary action and will be referred to the police for further investigation,” Giordano wrote.

The threat follows an incident on Monday in which a Riverhead middle school student was placed in police custody for making a verbal threat against the school — the third since June 1.

Security at schools has been heightened on Long Island since the May 24 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

Police on Long Island in the last two weeks have responded to dozens of threats against schools. Nassau County police have responded to 44 threats toward schools and they are being investigated, police said Friday. Suffolk police didn't immediately say how many school threats they have responded to in that time.

Meanwhile, shortly before 2 p.m. Friday, Southampton Town police responded to a 911 call of a dispute on North Magee Street and someone possibly armed with a weapon, police said in a news release. A “concerned person” advised Tuckahoe School staff about the 911 call and the school went into a lockdown.

Police responded to the school, where they searched the building and found no threat, they said. The school resumed normal activities.