14-year-old Home-school Student Arrested for Terrorizing in St. Tammany

A 14-year-old home-school student was arrested Wednesday (October 30, 2024) night after sending threatening text messages to students who attend a Covington-area private school.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched Tuesday (October 29, 2024) evening to a Covington-area private high school after a student at the school reported receiving messages from an unknown phone number. The text messages included threats of violence towards the recipient along with a photograph of an unknown individual holding a firearm. Wednesday morning, a second juvenile victim from the same school reported receiving similar threats of violence from the same unknown phone number.

The case was assigned to detectives with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office Persons Crimes Unit, and Wednesday evening detectives arrested a 14- year-old female, who reportedly admitted to sending the messages in attempts to scare the victims and had no intention to carry out the threats made.

The photograph depicting the firearm was later found to be a commonly used photograph from the internet, and detectives determined the juvenile did not have access to any weapons.

She was issued a summons for LRS 14:40.1 Terrorizing and was released to a parent on a custodial agreement to appear in court.

“We have made it very clear that we will take threats like this seriously,” Sheriff Randy Smith said.  “We will continue to work with our schools and investigate any and all threats. Parents, I urge you, to please speak with your children about the seriousness of making threatening statements even if they have no intentions on acting on them.”