‘No immediate safety threat’ at Westwood High after student’s social media post

A Westwood High School student made a threat toward the school on social media, officials say.

But that student was out of town with a parent Friday, and there is “no immediate safety threat” to the school, Westwood principal Cheryl Guy wrote in an email to parents Friday morning.

Rumors apparently circulated that there was an active safety threat or shooting on the campus Friday; those rumors are untrue, Richland 2 spokeswoman Libby Roof said.

Nothing indicates that the student who made the social media threat can act upon it at this time, Roof said. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is investigating, she said.

“We’re trying to have as normal a school day as possible,” Roof said.

Westwood is at least the third Midlands high school working to squash threats and rumors of threats Friday morning, two days after 17 people were shot to death at a Florida high school.

Earlier Friday, Kershaw and Fairfield county law enforcement officials both took to Facebook to dispel what they said were false rumors of threats at Lugoff-Elgin High School and Fairfield Central High School.

This story was originally published February 16, 2018 at 10:55 AM with the headline "‘No immediate safety threat’ at Westwood High after student’s social media post."