One Nome Beltz High School student has been arrested for making “terroristic threats” and is now in custody at the local youth facility.
According to a statement from school principal Jon Berkeley, a student made a verbal threat on Friday after 3:10pm “regarding guns and shooting up the school.” The Nome Beltz student made those comments while looking out over the indoor target range that was previously used for riflery classes. The statement goes on to say:
“At no time were students or staff in any danger. The school day was at an end and the student was with a staff member.”
According to Berkeley, the student was not in possession of any firearms or other weapons. Berkeley could not comment further on the incident outside of what was released in his statement.
Nome Public Schools’ Superintendent Jamie Burgess encourages students to say something if they hear another student make a threat of any kind.
“Students may say ‘oh I’m just kind of joking around’, but they have to understand that’s not really something we can joke about because there are many circumstances, even locally… we had an incident not that many years ago in Bethel, it was a school shooting. Kids have to understand that we have to take those types of statements very, very seriously. We just want our students to understand that.”
Superintendent Burgess says she is not legally able to reveal the student’s identity.
Once the report was made to a Nome Police officer, NPD interviewed the juvenile over the weekend and ultimately charged the student with making terroristic threats in the second degree. The juvenile is only being identified by the initials D.K.
In a separate incident, the Nome Police Department has filed charges against three juveniles for the Juvenile Probation to review, related to the fire that occurred at a vacant residence in Nome on April 20th.
Sergeant Jerry Kennon with NPD says the investigation continues with additional criminal charges pending of arson and trespassing.
Nome’s Juvenile Probation will make the final decision as to whether or not formal charges will be made in that house fire case.
Katie Kazmierski contributed reporting to this story.
Image at top: Nome Beltz High School, where a student made a threat of “shooting up the school” on Friday afternoon. Photo: Katie Kazmierski, KNOM
