A Breach in Online Security Protocol Blamed at Pine Forest High School Enabling the Idle Shooting Threat

Attendance at Pine Forest High School was estimated to be around 40% on Monday, Oct. 7, the morning after a Louisiana teen was charged with an internet crime that struck fear in parents, students and faculty on the north side of town.

At the end of last week a message was posted on the school's internal Edmodo system, accessible from other public schools. The threatening note was addressed to the senior class at Pine Forest High School's Class stating plans to "shoot up the school" on Monday and then kill himself. Students were specifically named that supposedly had bullied the teen.

According to superintendent Frank Till a breach in security and passwords left unguarded were open to public access, which was how the names of certain seniors were mentioned in the post, that spread across social media outlets over the weekend.

Cyber crimes investigators determined that a 15-year-old in Louisiana had concocted the threat as a hoax, and the student will be charged.