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FCSO investigating 2 separate incidents involving Miami Trace Schools this week

By
Fayette County Sheriff's Office, Press Release

On Monday morning shortly after 9:30 a.m., the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Miami Trace School District concerning a message left on the answering service from a female inquiring if the school district was aware of a potential bomb threat posted on social media.

Deputies and school faculty quickly determined that no credible threat existed and all buildings on campus were secure.

Further investigation of the social media post led detectives to the identity of the author of the post. Initially, it was allegedly reported by the author of the post concerning the threat that a secondary post was observed on a different social media platform and had been removed after only a couple of minutes, prompting a call to the school by the author of the social media post. Further investigation revealed that allegedly, no second post was ever made or observed.

Deputies have charged Courtney M. Hines-Young, 26, of Washington Court House with making false alarms. Hines-Young will be scheduled for an arraignment before the Washington Court House Municipal Court.

On Tuesday morning shortly before 9:30 a.m., the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Miami Trace Local School campus after it was reported to SRO Deputy Monty Coe by a student that another student was allegedly in possession of a weapon at the Miami Trace Middle School.

Deputy Coe detained the juvenile suspect and secured the suspect’s backpack and could observe what appeared to be a firearm inside the bag as additional deputies responded to the campus.

School administrators placed the Miami Trace Middle School in a shelter in place status, and the principals in the other buildings were alerted to the incident at the Middle School. Although there was no evidence to believe this incident was affiliated with the other school buildings, deputies were assigned to the High School and Elementary School as a safety measure while the incident was being investigated.

During the investigation, it was determined by detectives that the weapon recovered was an air soft gun, although indistinguishable from a firearm as the incident unfolded.

A Miami Trace student was taken into custody and transported to the South Central Ohio Juvenile Detention Center, charged with delinquency counts of illegal conveyance or possession of an object indistinguishable from a firearm in a school safety zone.

All students on the Miami Trace campus resumed a normal schedule following stabilization of the incident.

The juvenile suspect will be scheduled to appear before the Fayette County Probate-Juvenile Court to answer to the charges.

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