School threat had some Mississippi parents concerned. Sheriff said threat aimed at school with same name in other state.

Published 6:23 am Monday, October 25, 2021

A shooting threat that circulated the social media app Snapchat has several Mississippi parents concerned when seeing the message, but officials say the threat was aimed at a school with the same name in another state.

“Me and a couple of my friends have been bullied for so long and we can’t deal with it anymore,” the screenshot message read. “We plan on shooting up Warren Central High School around 10 to 11 a.m. We will shoot anyone on sight, going for around 5-10 students and 5 administrators.”

While this left several students and parents in Vicksburg concerned, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace confirmed to The Vicksburg Post that the threat did not originate in the area.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

Pace said the threat originated in Warren County, Missouri, several days ago and that Warren Central High School in Vicksburg was not a known target.

There are 14 counties in the United States named Warren, and several others besides the one in Mississippi have high schools named Warren Central.

This is not the first time threats to similarly-named schools in different states have caused confusion. In 2017, Northeast Jones High School in Mississippi was put on lockdown when social media threats to a “Northeast” high school surfaced. The posts were later found to have referenced a high school in Maryland.