A seventh-grade student at Oakdale Middle School is facing a terrorizing charge after allegedly sending threatening messages and concerning photos to other students.

Allen Parish School Board Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance, Transportation and Special Services Kenney Courville said the student was arrested following an investigation into the incident.

The student also allegedly made some threatening comments to students when he arrived at school on Thursday.

“We were alerted and the school administration did a great job in contacting the Oakdale Police Department and the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office who all worked together to investigate the incident,” Courville said. “They were very quick to determine that it was a credible threat and the student was charged with terrorizing.”

Despite posting pictures of a gun, the student did not have any weapons and no weapons were found at the school, Courville said.

“Unfortunately this is not the first incident, but it is the first one we have had this year,” Courville said. “Hopefully it will be out last.”

Courville urges parents to use this as a lesson to teach their children about the dangers and consequences of making threats.

“We want to take this opportunity to educate students and urge parents to talk to their children about the seriousness of making threats and that it is not okay to threaten people,” he said. “Saying you were only joking is not going to get you out of trouble.”

Courville said the Allen Parish school district has a very thorough threat assessment protocol in place to handle incidents involving verbal and on-line threats made by students.

All threats are taken seriously and are fully investigated, he said.

“Our initial step is to determine whether or not the threat is credible and whether or not it’s an immediate threat,” he said.

All local law enforcement agencies will continue to work with local police departments, school resource officers and school officials to investigate any and all threats to keep students and schools safe, he said.

“Everybody should be able to go to school and feel safe and not have to be anxious about threats,” Courville said.