News
Former Student Facing Criminal Charge Following PHS Incident
By: WOUB Contributing Writer
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A text message involving a gun puts Parkersburg High School on lock down.
Now a former student faces a criminal charge in Wood County.
The lock down ended before noon and a teenager turned himself into police.
He's a former Parkersburg High School Student.
He's Jonathan Michael Loncala and he appeared in Wood County Magistrate Court Wednesday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge of sending a threat by cell phone.
Police were alerted to the situation after a student notified school officials of a text he received, from another student who said he had a gun.
"It was that thought immediately … the police department … the initial thought was the student had been in the parking lot … and police were dispatched to the parking lot … the building was immediately put on lock down,"" says Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling. "Once they secured that area they came inside and began to sweep the area … each class room in the building as well … all the while collecting information … that more credible information that we could put information together."
It's believed there was a dispute between the two students.
The lock down was lifted shortly before 11 Wednesday morning.
Both police and school officials say that at no time was there a gun inside the school.
This article was contrributed by WTAP News in Parkersburg.