Police Arrest Student After Crete-Monee Threat

A juvenile student was arrested at home Tuesday morning on a felony disorderly conduct charge after a shooting threat against Crete-Monee High School circulated on social media, the school district and Crete Police Department said. Police said the student, who wasn't publicly identified, had no immediate access to guns.

Several parents said the threat disturbed them, and they planned to keep their children out of school Tuesday morning. Their response came before the district could say how many students were absent. It didn't respond to attendance inquiries. Families made their own decisions while school and police officials organized their response.

What families heard

Police received notice of a potential threat Monday evening and began investigating. Police Chief Scott Pieritz shared an image that appeared to show a screenshot of a YouTube live chat during a high school football game. One user wrote, "Don't be at crete tuesday at 9AM," then followed up with, "putting my AR to work."

The posts spread on social media and alarmed parents. The school district and police developed a safety plan that included a heightened police presence. The release gave no further details about the plan, and the district didn't provide a count of students who stayed away Tuesday.

The official response

Police said the information they received indicated the threat was verbal. "At this time, all information received indicates this was only a verbal threat," police said. They added: "However, the police department considers even verbal threats of this nature extremely dangerous, disruptive, and disturbing."

Authorities distinguished a verbal threat from access to a weapon: police said the student had no immediate access to guns, while calling the threat dangerous and disruptive. Officials responded by making an arrest and increasing police presence at the school. They didn't make the suspect's name public.

The arrest happened at the student's home Tuesday morning, according to a joint news release from Crete-Monee School District 201-U and the Crete Police Department. The charge was felony disorderly conduct. The release identified the suspect as a student at the school but gave no further personal details.

Other school threats

The report said the Crete-Monee threat came three weeks after threats in Tinley Park and Oak Forest. A Tinley Park teenager faced a felony charge Sept. 23 for threatening a shooting at Central Middle School.

A day before that charge, a caller claimed he was in a school bathroom with guns and a homemade bomb, prompting a lockdown at Oak Forest High School. Those incidents add a regional backdrop of school threats and official security responses. The details provided don't identify any community-led response beyond parents deciding whether to send their children to school.

At Crete-Monee, families faced an immediate choice as the posts spread: send children to a school where police planned a heightened presence, or keep them home. Police and district officials controlled the formal safety plan, while parents' concerns shaped the response outside it. The district didn't say how many families chose to stay away.