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Update: Westwood Student Who Made Threat Charged With Fake Weapon Possession

The student was still being evaluated at an area hospital Friday.

 

Updated at 2:30 p.m. Friday

Police arrested an 18-year-old Westwood Jr./Sr. High School student who allegedly made threats against another student Wednesday.

Westwood and Washington Township Police conducted a joint investigation. A borough home was searched and some evidence was collected before the arrest was made, according to a press release from Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino.

Regino said he could not specify what was taken from the home due to an ongoing investigation, but said that the man had been charged with possession of an imitation weapon.

"At this time we do not believe that there exists any threat that could be carried out against the schools in the district," Regino said in the release.

As of Friday, the student's identity was still being withheld because he was undergoing an evaluation at an area hospital, Regino said.

Washington Township Police Chief Randy Ciocco said two students would not be allowed back to the school until "evaluations are performed."

School administrators were alerted to the threat shortly after school Wednesday, according to a school messenger phone call to parents from Acting Superintendent Rory McCourt.

"The nature of the threat did not indicate an immediate threat to the school," McCourt said in the message.

McCourt wrote in a letter to parents that all schools in the district had reviewed "protocols for supporting students" and that district staff had been "vigilant about maintaining a single point of entry" to Westwood Regional schools since the shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut last week..

In a previous letter, McCourt also wrote that the district was working with local police to increase security.

McCourt thanked Westwood and Washington Township Police in his letter and reaffirmed that the district was working with them to improve security.

"Considering the anxiety that I’m sure we are all feeling as parents, I wanted to reassure you that your children had a positive experience today at school," McCourt wrote.

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Related Topics: Washington Township, Westwood, Westwood Regional School District, and safe schools

andromeda

9:48 am on Thursday, December 20, 2012

Good going, it's attitudes like yours that can push someone into an act of desperation, further marginalizing a person who is probably very isolated already. Violence is often a last resort for people who have reached the end of their rope for whatever reason. A little compassion could probably go a long way right now. How 'bout it?

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LE

12:48 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012

Agree with Denise..sorry, but I am not willing to take a chance with my kids lives because some nutcase has reached the end of their rope...student should not be allowed back in school, period. Do you have compassion for the shooter in Sandy Hook? I don't....I have compassion for those families who lost their babies.

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John Weaver

9:32 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012

It says a student made a threat against another student. It doesn't say that a sociopath made a threat against the school district. I know while I was a student at WHS I was threatened by other students on more than one occasion, there was never a shooting.

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