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Teen charged after Glen Allen High School lockdown

Posted at 12:45 PM, Jan 10, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-11 10:56:30-05

GLEN ALLEN, Va. (WTVR) -  A 16-year-old boy has been charged with threatening to commit serious bodily harm to a person on school property following Tuesday's lock down at Glen Allen High School, according to Henrico Police.

"The threat was made by the 16 year old towards a male juvenile acquaintance. The 16 year old has been placed into juvenile detention and will have a court date later this month," police wrote.

The teenager faces one year in jail and/or a $2,500 if convicted, police said.

"The student was distraught over relationship issues he was having with another juvenile.  There was fear that he may try to harm himself or others," police said.

Police locked down the high school about 12:15 p.m. and SWAT team members searched for the student. The student was not at school. The lock down was lifted about 2:20 p.m. after the student was taken into custody at his Glen Allen home.

Police said no weapons were found on the student or at his home.

Additionally, officers said this should be a lesson to other students.

"If you threaten someone whether it's verbally, written, through electronics or social media, people never know exactly when somebody's serious or when they think they're kidding," Lt. Linda Toney with the Henrico Police Department said. "So, every time you think about that you need to take it very seriously."

Legal expert Todd Stone told CBS6 if the teen is found guilty, the judge has a number of punishment options.

“For a juvenile, everything is open here, he could be getting community service if he's convicted, he could be put on probation, or he could actually go to detention and serve time in detention,” Stone said.

Stone said judges in the juvenile court system work to rehabilitate kids so they can live a full life outside of prison.

“They could give him some therapy, or anger management, if this looks like it was a relationship issue, and he didn't act well toward the relationship,” Stone said.