Death Threat Made Against Erath High School Teacher, Investigation Opened

According to the Abbeville Meridional, a death threat was allegedly made against a teacher at Erath High School in Vermilion Parish.

Authorities say that school officials at Erath High School received word of a student allegedly planning to "shoot up the school". After hearing of this threat, Anna LaPointe, the Erath Chief of Police, opened an investigation.

During the course of investigating the threat of shooting up the school, LaPointe also discovered that a group of students was discussing murdering a specific teacher, according to the story.

The student who was identified as the one who made mention of shooting up the school was told to stay home. It was not clear if any disciplinary action has yet been taken on that student.

The group of students who were discussing murdering the teacher (the teacher's name has not been released) was also told to stay home, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Even if the discussion was in jest, officials take threatening comments seriously, as evidenced by the actions of both the school officials and the Erath Police Department. Threatening to shoot up a school or threatening to take the life of anyone - even as a joke - can be actionable, with serious disciplinary action handed down for anyone found guilty of making those comments.

According to the Abbeville Meridional, the group of students did not directly threaten the teacher; they were having a discussion about the crime. Those who took part in that discussion could face punishments as serious as five or more years in jail if found guilty.

The school planned to have extra security in the days following the threats.