Former student charged after entering Tiverton High School with help of another student
TIVERTON — Tiverton Police have arrested a 16-year-old former student who trespassed onto Tiverton High School grounds, allegedly entering the building, on Tuesday.
Police said they arrived Tuesday morning to find the school on lockdown and the unnamed trespasser wearing a black ski mask and all-black attire walking out of the building.
The male does not attend the school but attends classes online, according to the police department press release about the situation. Police said the teenager claimed he arrived on a school bus earlier that morning to hang out with friends on campus. Police said surveillance video later revealed the trespasser had arrived at the school via a private vehicle and was let in by a student through a side door in the building.
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Officer Michael Miguel, the police department's media contact, said the 16-year-old had not made any threats to the school nor was there evidence to suggest the student held any ill will to harm anyone. Miguel said the student was in the building for between 30 minutes and an hour.
"He just was just fooling around, being a stupid kid basically," Miguel said.
Police charged the male with one count of disturbance of public assembly, two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of disruption of an officer in the execution of his/her duty. The 15-year-old female who let him in has also been charged with disturbance of public assembly and conspiracy. The male was transported to Newport Hospital as a precaution after sustaining minor injuries during the booking process. The police press release claims the male became combative during the booking process, leading to some of the charges, and the two officers booking him also sustained minor injuries.
A Family Court Judge has since released the male to a parent under several conditions, such as a curfew. He is set to return to court in about a month, Miguel said.
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This is the second public safety scare to occur at Tiverton High School since the on-site Student Resource Officer was removed from his role in December. On Jan. 10, a Tiverton High School student was arrested on felony charges for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to the school, although a search revealed no evidence of bombs on school grounds.
Miguel said the school handled the situation appropriately and that the police department does not believe the lack of the SRO on school grounds has impacted the safety at the school.
"I mean, it definitely makes everyone's life easier if we have a representative in the school at the time, either to deal with problems as they come up or who can work directly with the school system," Miguel said. "Even yesterday we had officers on the scene in a couple minutes, so I'm not really worried about our response time and getting officers there. Our SRO also covers all our schools... so even if something like that happened, there's no saying if he would have been at the high school at the time."
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Tiverton High School: Former student arrested after entering building
