For the second time in as many weeks, a student at Stockton’s Venture Academy – a charter joint elementary and high school campus operated by the San Joaquin County Office of Education and located behind their Arch Airport Road campus – has been arrested for making terrorist threats.
A 16-year-old male student, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was arrested Thursday night and taken into custody and booked at San Joaquin County Juvenile Hall after an anonymous email was received by Venture Academy through social media informing them that one of their students wanted to shoot up the school.
Officers visited the residence of the student and after taking with him and his parent and took him into custody without incident. A search of the residence turned up no firearms. No other information has been released.
“Once again, we are pleased that people are coming forward with information regarding these types of serious threats,” Stockton Police Department spokesman Joe Silva said in a statement released to the department’s social media page. “The Venture Academy staff did the right thing by contacting us immediately which allowed our officers to make a quick arrest.”
Last month a 14-year-old Venture Academy student was arrested on a similar charge after school officials reported him to authorities for having written plans for a school shooting. Officers also search that student’s residence after he was arrested on Feb. 26. Nothing illegal was discovered.
Venture Academy, which offers programs like Health Occupations Students of America, or HOSA, for students pursuing a career as a healthcare professional, and the FARMS Leadership Program, which introduces students to careers in sustainable agriculture or related environmental sciences, is open to students who live in San Joaquin County or any of the counties that border it.
Historic Durham Ferry – the rural agricultural-based school for 5th through 8th grade students and high schoolers in South Manteca – is also part of the Venture Academy family of schools, as is the Delta Visionary Integrated Science, Technology and Academics program, known as Delta Vista, which provides a rigorous science-based workload for students looking to get ahead and earn college credits.
Students at the Stockton campus staged a peaceful, 17-minute walkout at the beginning of this month to demonstrate against gun violence in schools after 17 students lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.