Hundreds skip school after threat in Sahuarita

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Hundreds of students called out sick Monday, a week after a threat was made at Walden Grove High School, according to administrators at Sahuarita Unified School District.

Police were called to the high school on Tuesday, Dec. 6, according to a police report from Sahuarita Police Department.

An administrators received reports of a teenager threatening to be a school shooter and gun down his fellow students, according to the report.

The school's assistant principal told police that three kids told him about a student who said, "I'm gonna shoot up the school and the first three people I'm coming after are....".

The student who made the threat has been disciplined eight times so far this year, according to the police report.

"I can see myself being the next school shooter," is what the student told the assistant principal on Oct. 28, according to the report.

It states that he is autistic and in the special education program. The assistant principal said the teenager considers the students he threatened to be his friends, according to the police report.

He considered it to be a misunderstanding.

Police interviewed the student and his parents. The teenager told the officer that he's been bullied throughout school, but high school wasn't as bad as junior high, according to the police report.

The teen was charged with threats and intimidation and disruption of an education institution, two misdemeanor offenses.

His parents kept him home from school Monday, according to police.

The total number of students who called out sick from school Monday was 283, according to SUSD administrators.

Amber Woods, SUSD Director of Community Outreach, said the matter was a student issue that was handled with police, the student and his parents.

She said student issues are typically handled privately, but this one was made public in response to misinformation that was circulating about the threat.

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