Methuen High was at the center of a school shooting threat by a 16-year-old student this week. (File photograph)
A 16-year-old male Methuen High student was arrested Tuesday after threatening to carry out shootings at his school and Presentation of Mary Academy, a Catholic high school in the city.
Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon told WHAV the juvenile was held on $50,000 bail and is due to be arraigned in Lawrence Juvenile Court Wednesday.
Methuen has dealt with a sudden uptick of troubling school-related incidents in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a 9-year-old boy brought a pellet gun to the Comprehensive Grammar School in his backpack and a fourth-grader, 10, shot at Marsh School buses with a BB gun.
“These repeated incidents of violence and threats of violence by school age children is troubling. We ask parents to please speak with your children about the lifelong ramifications of actions of violence and threats,” Solomon told WHAV.
The Methuen Public School system breaks for its winter holiday vacation from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2.