Police in Louisiana Address School ‘Threat’ Making the Rounds

The Chief of the Youngsville Police Department has spoken to us about a situation that evolved last and this week concerning a nationwide message that referenced a possible generic school situation, but it does not have to do with Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy.

The situation actually had its origin last week, and it has been thoroughly investigated by the Youngsville Police Department according to Chief Cody Louviere.

Chief Louviere tells us that no matter what happens, they will investigate anything that is close to discussions that might deal with issues at schools especially anything that might deal with a school threat.

It boils down to information that was sent out nationally to education facilities that spoke about information being disseminated nationally to schools for them to be aware of, but not specific threats. There was no specific threat to ARCA. A letter was sent out just to keep people in the loop.

What happened then in the interim involved three students who ended up sharing information on a popular social media platform, but the information was not correct.

Following the information getting out there, many were thinking that perhaps there were threats against the school. There are no threats against the school, everything has been investigated just to be as diligent as possible, and even additional law enforcement officials are on the campus today just to be extra cautious.

Remember the Telephone Game?

Chief Louivere says this involved three students, "the discussion was via Snap Chat about 'things they heard'.

That's what ended up happening in this situation. The Chief tells us that things were taken out of context and spread. He adds that the students and their parents are being made aware of how inaccurate information can travel so quickly in the digital age and be taken out of context.

Following our interview, Chief Louivere issued the following statement on Facebook,

YPD wants to address the rumors that there were threats to ARCA today via Snapchat. There was no direct threats to the school. There were a few children that were sharing snapchats with vague hearsay information. All of the children involved have been spoken to and dealt with by law enforcement in conjunction with the schools administration. We are invested in our schools safety and promise to address any issues rapidly and with the utmost importance. We will also have, in addition to our School Resource Officers, extra patrol at all of our schools today in Youngsville. Please rest assured that we are involved and active to keep our schools safe.