Concerned Philo students report alarming social media post, sheriff’s office investigates

Concerned Philo students report alarming social media post, sheriffs office investigates

By Christine Holmes, News Director

The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a comment made by a high school-aged individual on social media over the weekend that caused for other students to be alarmed.

According to Sheriff Matt Lutz, students reported a post made on Snapchat from a former Philo High School student who is no longer attending classes.

The threatening nature of the post was enough for school authorities to contact law enforcement.

Lutz could not share any further details about the post due to a pending criminal investigation.

“I don’t know that there’s going to be any charges, necessarily, because I don’t know that there’s actually going to be any threats made, but there were some comments put out on social media,” said Lutz. “Some students saw these threats, they contacted the right people, and the right people got us involved, got the school officials involved.”

An investigation was conducted overnight into the matter before school resumed as normal Monday morning.

“Not necessarily saying that this avoided something really bad, but it definitely was the right process and could have avoided something really bad,” said Lutz.

Parents and guardians in the Franklin Local School District were made aware of the incident through and electronic phone call and social media updates.

“I think we have a good track record, and I think our schools in this county and the city have a great track record that if there’s something out there that we think that parents need to know, we’re going to get it to them as soon as possible,” said Lutz. “There’s been schools shut down the next day because of a comment or a threat. There’s been schools released early because of comments and threats, and you know, this was nowhere near in shape or form of that, especially with the activity that our office did last night with the investigation.”

Lutz added that the district’s school resource officers are aware of the matter and were involved in the investigation.