5 arrests across North Texas in connection with threats against schools

Amidst a flood of Threats against schools on social media, police authorities in North Texas have arrested five people, each of whom is individually accused of threatening violence against schools in the region.

3 arrests in Arlington

Arlington police made two arrests on Thursday and another on Friday morning.

Arlington High School administrators reported a social media threat against the school's safety officer on Thursday, the police department said in a Facebook post on Friday. Police said they traced the post to 18-year-old Kevin Martinez-Molina, who is not a student at Arlington High School.

According to police, Martinez-Molina told officers he made the post as a joke. He was arrested and charged with allegedly making a terroristic threat, which is a felony. He is being held in the Arlington City Jail. Information about a court hearing or whether he has an attorney was not immediately available.

A student at Arlington ISD's Gunn Junior High School was also arrested Thursday after several witnesses reported the student for making a verbal threat against the school, police said. The student was arrested and charged with allegedly making a terroristic threat and taken to the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center. The student's identity is not being released.

On Friday morning, Arlington police arrested a Lamar High School student who allegedly threatened a staff member. The student was also charged with terroristic threats and booked into the county's juvenile detention center. The student is a minor and is not being identified.

“We will use every tool at our disposal to find out who is making threatening messages,” Arlington police wrote in the Facebook post. “And as we have stated before, we will not hesitate to arrest and pursue charges against these individuals, regardless of whether the threat is real or false.”

CBS News Texas has reached out to Arlington ISD for comment.

Threat from Frisco ISD

Frisco ISD sent a letter to parents of Hunt Middle School students on Friday about a threat made against the school on social media.

The letter said Frisco police investigated the incident and determined the threat was not credible, but a student was arrested for making the threat.

Frisco ISD asked parents to remind their children that a charge of threatening a school can result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Suspended Wylie East High School student arrested

Wylie police said they responded to a Whataburger call late Thursday night about a 16-year-old boy threatening to rob Wylie East High School. Witnesses told officers the boy said he had been expelled from school earlier in the day and they feared for their lives because they also attended that school.

Police said they took the boy into custody because of the threat and later learned that he had been suspended from Wylie East School the same day for making comments that his classmates found threatening.

In a letter to East High School families, Principal Tiffany Doolan wrote that there were no active threats against the school.

“Our district does not tolerate threats. We take all threatening behavior seriously and will continue to work closely with law enforcement to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Threats of any kind, whether made in jest or with serious intent, will be fully investigated and appropriate consequences will be imposed,” Doolan said.