A 15-year-old freshman student at Claiborne High School in Tazewell has been taken in to custody for delivering a threatening handwritten note to his school around noon Thursday.

According to Claiborne County Sheriff David Ray, the note was obtained by the school resource officer and the assistant principal. It made threats to kill students and teachers beginning Friday morning.

After a thorough investigation by school officials and officers of the CCSO and the New Tazewell Police Department, the juvenile was taken into custody after admitting to writing the threatening note. According to a news release from the CCSO, he stated the note was a prank, that he did not mean to hurt anyone and it was his way to get out of school.

He was charged with making a false report and disrupting a meeting. Juvenile Judge Robert Estep ordered the child be placed into custody and held at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center in Knoxville. The child will be transferred back to Claiborne County Monday for a detention hearing.

Ray stated, “Because of the world we live in today, threats such as these are taken very seriously. Protecting the children of Claiborne County and the teachers who teach them is my top priority. People who choose to threaten others by whatever means, will be thoroughly investigated, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”