14-year-old boy charged for allegedly threatening to shoot up Chelsea school

A 14-year-old boy was arraigned Monday in Boston Juvenile Court for allegedly threatening to shoot up a school in Chelsea last week after he was involved in a fight with another student, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. 

The DA’s office said Chelsea police responded to Shore Educational Collaborative school around 9:30 a.m. on October 17 for a call reporting threats. At the school, an official told the officers that the 14-year-old boy was involved in a fight with a student the day before during which he allegedly attacked his classmate with a hanger. When school staff broke up the fight, the boy allegedly screamed, “Dead, dead, everyone is dead! Going to come back with a gun and shoot everyone up!”

The police were called related to that incident, but the DA’s office said the school placed the 14-year-old on emergency removal pending a disciplinary hearing. A school official called police the next day because a student informed him that the 14-year-old boy had posted a picture with guns on social media, saying he was going to come to the school and “shoot it up,” according to prosecutors. 

Other students allegedly saw the post and did not come to school that day, according to the DA’s office.

“We have seen far too much school violence across our nation and those incidents force us to treat school threats with extreme seriousness and caution,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “No one should feel unsafe or threatened when they are attending school or work. Prevention is key here and it is always best to intervene before it escalates.”

The 14-year-old boy was charged with making a bomb threat and ordered held on $750 bail and home confinement with GPS monitoring, except for an alternative school placement. 

The student was also ordered to stay away from Shore Educational Collaborative school and to stay off social media, according to the DA’s office.