Girl’s Shocking Reason for Threatening Bridgeton School Shooting

Bridgeton Police went public with details about a school threat at Broad Street Elementary School on Thursday, Sept 19th.

A 12-year-old girl wrote the social media post, the latest in a rash of threats being focused on South Jersey schools this year.

Student Arrested and Charged for School Threat

In a Facebook post, Bridgeton Police say they were told about a threat of a school shooting at Broad Street School. The threat also included the names of students who would be potential targets of the school shooting.

The police tried to ease the concern of those students' families, saying that they had investigated the threat and spoke with the 12-year-old girl who made it.

Police found that the girl had no access to weapons to follow through with the threat and she said that she had no intention of hurting anyone.

Here's a part of the investigation that really stood out to me as shocking and sad.

When police asked her why she had made this school shooting threat, the girl said she wrote the threatening post just to see how people would react.

Well, I guess she found out. The girl was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and causing a false public alarm.

 Several Similar Threats Have Been Made This School Year

Only a month into this school year, there have already been a handful of similar school threats locally, including one in Gloucester County where a 10-year-old boy was charged after posting a 'disturbing' threat video on TikTok.

Last week, Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing was closed for a day after a threatening social media post and Upper Township Schools were told to shelter in place following a threatening phone call.

In early September, a student at Pinelands Regional High School was dismissed from school after a screenshot of this threat circulated.

 “!!!Warning (hazard sign) tell your parents to satu home for your own safety rob elementary 2 times (sic).”

It was at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, where a horrific mass shooting occurred in May 2022, with a shooter killing 19 students and two teachers.