"I WILL BE SHOOTING UP LHS" threat puts Lexington on high alert

03/31/23

JACKSON, TENN (WNBJ)-

The social media post that put Lexington into a frenzy today said, “ TOMORROW @ 11:23 I WILL BE SHOOTING UP LHS THIS IS NOT A JOKE SO DON’T TAKE IT AS ONE”

“Scared, I know to a lot of people that is probably a silly kid and making a threat because of recent events, but we have to take that seriously. Especially when I live this close and I have kids in my house," Jodie Tweedy who lives less than half a mile from Lexington Highschool said.

The threat did not say which LHS the threat was referring to and law enforcement did not know where or who the post came from.

Officials decided to take a better safe than sorry approach,“With everything that's going on. We're always, you know, kind of extra alert and precautious and we want to take those precautions to make sure that our schools are safe, our children are safe, our teachers are parents," said Henderson County Sheriff Brian Duke.

And safety is also top priority among people in Lexington.

“With us being as close to the high school as we are, I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I do have a plan in place for the kids are earning a mark here right now that if for any reason I feel like we have to get to a safe place, I've got something," Tweedy said.

Lexington High School was on soft lockdown today with extra law enforcement presence on campus.

All the other schools in Lexington had an increased police presence due to the threat.

11:23 came and went without any shooting.

While many in law enforcement were busy all morning protecting the schools. Other agencies were also hard at work, “There is an effort to try to track that down through that social media site," Sheriff Duke said.

Just after 12:00 today the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department announced that the threat originated in Florida.

People flooded the comments on social media to thank the Sheriff’s Department for taking the threat seriously and for protecting the schools.