AUSTIN (KXAN) — There’s now an active investigation after police arrested a Westlake High School student accused of making threats against the school and students on Sunday.
According to Eanes Independent School District Superintendent, Dr. Jeff Arnett, at least four students alerted administrators about a student making concerning comments on Snapchat.
That student now faces a charge for making a terroristic threat.
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The students who reported the incident used the Westlake Watch anonymous reporting system that the district uses.
It allows you to select which school you want to report an incident, write something about it, and even add photos.
Arnett said they quickly worked with district staff and law enforcement agencies to identify and ultimately arrest the student after receiving the information.
“Although we have no reason to believe there is an existing threat to the school, we will be especially observant on campus this week,” the letter said.
On Monday—just over 24 hours later—the campus with nearly 3,000 students was seemingly, chillingly quiet. Many are on edge, wondering if it could have been a close call.
“We’ll never know exactly how close, but that’s why it’s so important to act immediately,” Eanes ISD Chief of Police, Matt Greer said.
According to the district, students started making reports simultaneously around 9 a.m. Sunday.
“We roughly receive about 12 anonymous tips every week over the course of a year,” Arnett said. That might be 5-600 tips…not all of them are determined to be legitimate.”
The tips from Sunday’s incident, were the first ever to lead to an arrest, Arnett said.
“We have an administrative team that looks at every tip that comes in, and they evaluate that based upon a number of criteria,” he said.
The system has been in place for a number of years, and this situation shows it at work exactly how it’s designed. And with that comes a sense of relief as school shootings continue to happen.
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“Especially given some of the other tragedies that we have observed around the country,” Arnett said.
Eanes ISD won’t comment on specifics of the threat, as the investigation is still ongoing.
All school districts are required by Texas law to have a system to allow anonymous tip reporting for situations threats like this.
During the 85th Texas Legislative Session, “David’s Law” was passed and went into effective law on September 1, 2017. According to the Texas School Safety Center, the law, “relates to harassment, bullying and cyberbullying of a public school student, a charter school student or a minor and encouraging certain mental health programs for public school students; increasing a criminal penalty, and providing a civil remedy.”
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