Valley High School student arrested for threatening school shooting, Sacramento deputies say

A Valley High School student was arrested Thursday on suspicion of threatening to open fire on campus and for falsely reporting an emergency, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

The student created a fake username online and used that profile to warn of a school shooting, deputies said.

On Friday, the female student gave school staff members a “digital file” of a chat in which it appeared she exchanged messages with another person. The other user threatened to get a gun and shoot at Valley High School on a “specific date,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The messages also had threats to other pupils and school employees, the release said.

But the female student who initially flagged the messages for deputies did not speak with law enforcement or identify the user issuing the threats, the news release said.

Deputies began investigating and interviewed about 30 other people. But they could not verify the user’s identity, authorities said.

The student then agreed to be interviewed by deputies this week and identified a high school student from Georgia as the other user she was exchanging messages with, the release said.

Deputies ruled out that a high school student in Georgia could be the other user and instead learned that the student had created a profile under the username and exchanged messages with herself — as if she were two people, the release said.

The student was arrested Thursday and booked into Sacramento Juvenile Hall where she could face charges, sheriff’s officials said.

Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, did not immediately answer a question regarding what date the school shooting was threatened.