PINE BLUFF, Ark — The Watson Chapel School District has recently been on edge for the past couple of weeks after multiple fake threats were called in.
Various school officials, including Superintendent Tom Wilson, have said it has been very frustrating.
Officials said, shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office arrested 18-year-old Renesha Washington on probable cause for three felony counts of communicating a false alarm.
The arrest came from an ongoing investigation into many prank text messages received by police regarding the Watson Chapel School District in Pine Bluff.
According to reports, police received multiple threat text messages within the last month stating that students had been shot on campus, there were also threats of a bomb, and also of multiple stabbings.
Though the threats were found to be false, they still caused panic and fear among law enforcement, students, parents, school officials, and the community.
On September 26, investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office got a search warrant for the phone service provider to look into the phone that the messages came from.
The phone service provider was able to provide the location and relevant data for the specific phone.
They were able to trace the leads back to Washington, who is a student within the school district. She was arrested, and the phone used to report the false alarms was collected.
We will update with more information as soon as it becomes available.
