Riverhead schools: Student removed for alleged verbal threat

A Riverhead middle schooler was removed from class Monday after allegedly making a verbal threat against the school, officials said. It's the third time in less than a week a student has allegedly threatened a Riverhead school.

The student allegedly made the threat while in class Monday morning and was escorted to the office of Riverhead Middle School Principal Stephen Hudson, District Superintendent Augustine Tornatore wrote in a letter to the community.

In an email to Newsday, Tornatore wrote that the student had been placed in police custody. 

"The investigation is still ongoing at this time and the parents of the student are cooperating with the police at this time," Riverhead police said in a release.

The alleged threat follows the arrests of two 15-year-old male students at Riverhead High School last week. Riverhead police said a teen yelled into a classroom to “shoot up the school" on Wednesday. No weapons were found on him or his residence. The next day, another student was arrested for allegedly making similar threats on social media. They were both charged with one count of making a terrorist threat.

“The Riverhead School District takes a threat of any kind very seriously,” Tornatore wrote in reference to Monday's incident. “There is zero tolerance for such behavior or actions.”

The superintendent said a police presence will remain at the middle school for the rest of the week.

School security has heightened since the massacre last month in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school.

In the past two weeks, authorities on Long Island said police responded to dozens of threats against schools. 

Schools officials in Nassau and Suffolk and have said they are working with police on efforts to reevaluate and upgrade campus security measures.

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.