Cowden-Herrick Student Expelled After Threat of Violence

A Cowden-Herrick Grade School student has been expelled for the balance of this school year and for the entirety of the 2018-2019 school year.

The 13-year-old boy was expelled after he sent a social media post to another student threatening harm to the student in particular and to the school district in general.

The motion to expel the student includes a provision that if the student seeks counseling and provides proof of completion of the counseling, the expulsion would be reduced by one semester.

The Shelby County Sheriff's Department was notified shortly after 9:00 Monday morning after a Cowden-Herrick Grade School student told the principal that she received a threatening Instagram post. The sheriff's office worked with an Illinois State Police Task Force that tracked down the IP address of the student who sent the threatening post.

The student was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly making the threat. The 13-year-old is being charged as a juvenile, but the count is a Class 4 felony.

The incident is the fourth such occurrence in Shelby County since the Florida school shooting incident and the second in the Cowden-Herrick School District. The previous event involved an alleged threat to the school building in Cowden by a 16-year-old girl.