Cops: Calverton boy, 14, charged with making threat against Riverhead Charter High School

A Calverton teen was arrested late last night after making a threat on social media against the Riverhead Charter High School, Riverhead Town Police said in a press release this morning.

After being notified of the threat by Riverhead Charter School officials just before 10 p.m. Wednesday, police searched the high school at 5117 Sound Avenue in Riverhead, police said. Officers located nothing suspicious or criminal, according to the release.

Police subsequently arrested a 14-year-old boy from Calverton in connection with the incident, according to the report. 

He was processed at Riverhead Police headquarters on a charge of Making a Threat of Mass Harm in violation of New York State Penal Law §240.78, a class B misdemeanor. He was released to a parent for a future court date, police said.

Police will be present at Riverhead Charter School today at the request of school officials, the release said.

Under the statute, which was enacted in 2022, “a person is guilty of making a threat of mass harm when, with the intent to intimidate a group of people or to create public alarm, the person threatens to inflict or cause to be inflicted, serious physical injury or death at a school, place of worship, business, government building or other place of assembly, causing a reasonable expectation or fear of serious injury or death, or causes the evacuation or lockdown of the school, place of worship, business, government building or other place of assembly.” The law states that it is no defense that the person making the threat doesn’t intend to carry it our or isn’t capable of carrying it out.

The suspect charged in the charter school incident was not identified by police due to his age. Police did not say whether the suspect is a student at Riverhead Charter School.