A student attending Canyon Hills High School made a shooting threat against the school on Sunday, January 22nd.

Around 10 pm on Sunday night, a student posted two stories on his private Instagram account with threatening messages that were soon screen shooted and circulated around social media by students. 

The first slide states, “Canyon Hills will be fun [tomorrow],” adding a smiley face at the end. 

The second story slide continued by adding, “If you hear screaming and see people running, [you] will know why.” 

The school was notified immediately in the morning of the potential threat through law enforcement and went into lockdown around 8 o’clock AM, before school started at 8:45. 

An email was sent to parents as well, asking for parents  to “…keep your child home until another message goes out telling you that the threat has been cleared.”

“As principal, it is my number one job to keep you safe outside of making sure you get an education. There is nothing I won’t do to make sure that happens,” Principal Renfree stated. “I have never felt unsafe here at CHHS. I know what to do and am trained to do it; unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened in the seven years I’ve been here. I hope it’s the last” 

Students were given the option to stay at home or leave school if they were already on campus, and all absences would be cleared for the day.

“After I saw the Instagram posts, I immediately sent them to my close friends and told them to not go to school,” Senior Alissa Ketchum stated. 

Although many students planned on staying home based on their own decision, many students also expressed that their parents refused to send them to school for the day as well. 

“I showed my mom screenshots of it,” Junior Aden Collins explained. “And as soon as I told her, she said I don’t care what you want. You’re not going to school.”

The suspect was apprehended and taken into police custody before school started. Further information on possible charges and repercussions are unknown at this time.