Two Manning High School students call in threats of violence

Manning High School received calls on Friday threatening potential violence from two students, it was announced Tuesday morning, officials said.

The calls were rumors, conversation that went too far and that were never a viable threat, Clarendon County Sheriff Tim Baxley said.

“We check every rumor because we want to be proactive with everything, especially with everything that’s going on with social media,” Baxley said.

Baxley said the sheriff’s office investigated two separate claims on Friday, Feb. 16. Officers went to one of the student’s, a male, house on Saturday and never found validity to the threat but that rumors continued to swirl on social media.

Parents started calling the school Monday worried when investigators went back to the campus on Paxville Highway, but Baxley said they were just checking on the same student.

“We will be vigilant of any threat that occurs at any school district,” he said. “We’re there to meet it head on.”

Baxley said he had been in contact with the superintendent and that everyone remains safe. There has been no disruption to classroom learning, and he will send more officers to the school if necessary.

Tonia Smith, a spokeswoman for Clarendon County District 2, said Tuesday morning that “all students, faculty and staff are safe.”

This is the third reported threat to area schools since Friday.

On Friday, rumors circulated that “something was going to happen at 2:20” based on social media posts, but nothing was verified as a real threat.

On Monday, a 13-year-old female student was released to her parents after it was confirmed she wrote she would “shoot the school down” on the floor of the seventh-grade girls bathroom.

She will be petitioned to Family Court.

Neither of those threats were confirmed to be viable or to pose real danger.

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, a 19-year-old man and former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, opened fire in the school, killing 17 people.