Swastikas, MLK Day shooting threat written in Beaufort County school bathroom, police say
More than a month after seven Beaufort County schools received shooting threats, another has surfaced — this time accompanied by drawings of swastikas and racist messages.
The graffiti was discovered in a boy’s bathroom at Battery Creek High School on Jan. 14, the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, police said.
In a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report, school resource officer Patrick O’Neal noted that the graffiti included swastikas alongside written messages. Two were threats directed at Jewish and Black people, along with “KKK,” “01/17/2022” and “I am going to shoot the school on 01/17/2022.”
He added that an assistant principal said the graffiti “came off relatively easy,” which means it had likely been written that afternoon. According to the report, no school cameras showed who exited and entered that restroom.
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Bob Bromage said Wednesday the threats were still under investigation and no suspects had been identified.
The school was closed on Jan. 17, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a school and federal holiday.
In December, seven Beaufort County schools ranging from Hilton Head Island to the Whale Branch cluster received shooting threats in the span of a week, with some made online and some left as graffiti in bathrooms. Battery Creek High School was not included in any of the threats.
Those threats appeared to be part of a national trend following a Nov. 30 shooting at a Michigan high school that left four dead. Like the other threats across the nation, those made in Beaufort County weren’t carried out.
One H.E. McCracken Middle School student was arrested and charged with making student threats and malicious injury to property at his school; he was released to the custody of his parents and is being processed through the family court system. Hilton Head Island High School was placed on lockdown for a social media shooting threat.
There was also a shooting threat made on Jan. 7 at Robert Smalls International Academy, nearly a month after the first wave of threats.
The handwritten note said, “I’m going to shoot up the school Monday 1/10/22 so you better run, this is not a threat it’s a promise, I hate RSIA imma kill everybody! F*** RSIA!”
The note was left in the girl’s bathroom before a student reported it. According to a police report, the student who wrote the note later admitted they had written the note because they were being bullied and did not want to come to school. They told police they had no intention of shooting up the school, and they had been searched for weapons the day that they reported the note and none were found.
The student was petitioned to Family Court, charged with school threats and released to their mother’s custody, the report said.