Student arrested for posting bomb threat against Allegheny County school

CHURCHILL, Pa. — A student is facing charges after police say he posted an anonymous bomb threat on social media that forced Woodland Hills Senior High School to evacuate Wednesday.

On Thursday morning before noon, Churchill Police arrested 18-year-old Jason Cummings. Channel 11 News was there as officers walked the senior out of Woodland Hills Senior High School, patted him down, and then loaded him into a police cruiser.

The teen was charged with a felony for making terroristic threats after police said he posted a bomb threat to social media.

“You cannot hide behind a keyboard post anonymously, threaten, bully, or do anything and not think you are going to get caught,” said Daniel Castagna, the superintendent for Woodland Hills School District.

On Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. the district was alerted to a threat, it listed a time and location inside the building, forcing officials to quickly evacuate and alert the Churchill police.

“The important part is all of the pieces we had in place worked. We were able to get the message out to parents before we dismissed [students]. Administrators stepped up, and the true credit in all of this goes to the Churchill police,” Castagna said.

Officials said within 20 minutes students were cleared, and within 40 minutes the building was searched and deemed safe. Police then immediately launched a full investigation, and in less than 24 hours officials knew Cummings had made the post.

“The fact that police were able to subpoena the IP addresses: not only the cell phone it was created on, but the home it was made from, and even the WiFi where a secondary page was created,” Castagna explained.

The superintendent said he was grateful this wasn’t a real threat, but said it is a dumb joke that will cost this student.

“These are the situations that break your heart because you are facing a child who made a mistake. It is unfortunate, but we must do our job. You cannot cause a mass evacuation,” Castagna said.

Cummings was arraigned and released.

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