Deputies arrested a substitute teacher in Louisiana this week, accusing her of sending false reports of active shooters to five schools.
The arrest took place in Caddo Parish near Arkansas and Texas.
Lytonja Barfield, 58, is accused of sending the fake alerts on Wednesday, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a release Thursday.
The sheriff’s office was put on alert Wednesday after getting word of the threats from Caddo Parish Public Schools officials and responded accordingly.
After the threats turned out to be bogus, the Caddo Parish School Board told law enforcement that Ms. Barfield sent the reports via the school district’s emergency management system, the sheriff’s office said.
Caddo Parish Public Schools told Fox News that “Ms. Barfield is no longer employed by the district, and, at the time of the incident, she was not assigned to work at any district site. … In response to the mobile alerts, the district followed our established security protocols to ensure student and staff safety at all locations.”
The sheriff’s office and school system did not specify which five schools were affected by the fake alerts.
Ms. Barfield was arrested after being questioned by law enforcement and was booked into the Caddo Correctional Center in Shreveport.
She’s charged with five counts of menacing, the sheriff’s office said. She was still in custody as of Friday afternoon, according to the sheriff’s office’s inmate records.
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