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Facebook Shooting Massacre Threat At UK High School Spooks Pupils

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 08:13 PST, Jan 4, 2016

A shooting massacre scare at a high school in Blackpool, England, caused over 1,000 pupils to miss the first day of term on Monday.

The alleged plotter of the attack reportedly made a series of posts on Facebook, claiming to be a student at the Blackpool high school and saying he was inspired by Columbine Massacre gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed one teacher and 12 students during the 1999 shooting massacre.

After the school said it would open and that business would be as usual on the date of the proposed attack, police were guarding the Montgomery High School in Bispham, Blackpool, on Monday after the Facebook posts threatened the alleged student would “kill as many people as possible.” The suspect reportedly used another boy’s Facebook page to make the threats.

Reportedly, one of the Facebook posts by the suspect read, “Nobody talks to me or notices me except when they’re calling me a nerd and pushing me around.”

“As soon as I tell people I’ve got a gun, I start getting bombarded with messages. You’re all f****d and you deserve what’s coming to you.”

One student at the school reportedly responded to this statement on Facebook and was quickly answered with a further threatening post, “You think it’s a joke? You’ll see bullets, bodies, and blood.”

The Facebook user said in a post that the planned attack was an act of revenge over alleged bullying and continued by praising the shooters who have stormed U.S. schools in the past.

Lancashire police will reportedly continue to monitor and guard the school over the following few days as a reassurance to parents, pupils, and staff. A spokesperson said there was nothing to suggest the messages on Facebook “pose a credible threat.”

As reported by the Metro, despite the police presence on site, Monday saw only 360 of the 1,375 pupils attending class at Montgomery High School. A spokesperson for the Lancashire Constabulary confirmed this fact, saying it had been reported there was a significant reduction in student attendance at the school and say they are working to reassure everyone.

“We do understand why parents have been reluctant to send sons and daughters into school. However, we wish to reassure you that Montgomery is a safe school and we look forward to a return to our usual very high levels of student attendance.”

While few students attended the high school on Monday, principal Tony Nicholson was proud to report that all teachers were at work that day and he applauded their dedication.

BBC News quotes one parent, Anne Hindle, as saying both her 15-year-old son and daughter stayed home from the high school on Monday. While they are both reportedly in their GCSE year, having read the Facebook posts, which she said were “pretty dark,” she felt the decision to keep them both at home was a good one, despite reassurance from the police.

“The police say there is no credible threat but we have no guarantee.”

Another parent, David Porter, said his son is a first-year pupil, and he decided not to take the risk and let him attend school Monday, saying his son was really scared by the Facebook threats against the high school.

“He’s very brainy and is up at 07:30 every day but he is scared and it takes a lot to keep him off.”

Porter continued by saying they want to be sure whoever posted the threats is caught and they are not sure if they will let their son attend school on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the high school said the Council in Blackpool is providing counseling services for any students who found the threats against the school to be “upsetting and stressful.”

Meanwhile, police will be in and around the school grounds for the next few days to guard and monitor the situation.

[Photo via Flickr by MIKI Yoshihito/CC BY 2.0]

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