Beaufort County student detained for threatening teacher and peers with a knife, police say

A Hilton Head Island High School student was detained Tuesday after threatening a teacher and fellow classmates with a pocket knife, according to officials.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received information Tuesday morning on the P3 Tips app, which is programmed on students devices and allows them to submit concerns to the sheriff’s office, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

The original tip, which referenced a student using a firearm, is still under investigation, according to the news release.

“As of this time, it is not known whether the male student has access to firearms at home, but that possibility will be addressed,” the news release said.

After receiving the tip, the high school’s resource officer located the male student and found a pocket knife in his possession, the news release said.

The student, who is a minor, was detained and interviewed by deputies. He is expected to be charged with possession of a weapon on school property, according to the news release.

The student was detained and is being interviewed. The male student — a juvenile — will be petitioned to the family court on the charge of Weapon on School Property.

Tuesday’s incident marks at least the fifth threat to affect a Beaufort County school so far this school year.

On Aug. 23, a 17-year-old Michigan boy with a history of soliciting and posting naked photos and videos of Beaufort County teens online posted on the social media app Snapchat that he was going to “shoot up” Bluffton and May River high schools.

The two high schools, along with Bluffton Elementary School and H.E. McCracken Middle School, were placed on a modified lockdown until the threat was deemed “non-credible.”

Two weeks later, on Sept. 6, a message that read “we should shoot dis school up” was discovered written on a bathroom wall at the district’s alternative school, Islands Academy, in Beaufort. The school was not placed on lockdown.

The following day, on Sept. 7, deputies were again called to Island Academy after a teacher heard a student say he was going to “shoot 62 people.” When questioned by police, the student said he was joking about the shooting comment.

On Sept. 10, Beaufort High School was placed on a short lockdown due to a social media threat. The lockdown was lifted after about 45 minutes because law enforcement determined the threat was referring to a high school in another state.

This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 12:27 PM.