On Tuesday, Dec. 10 at approximately 2:30 p.m., an 18-year-old male was arrested by the Kingston Police Department and charged with making terroristic threats outside of Kingston High School, a Class D felony.
“He made verbal threats towards the high school stating that he would come back, shoot up the school,” said KPD Detective Lt. Thierry Croizer on Wednesday, Dec. 11, adding that the suspect did not have a weapon.
Kingston City Court Chief Clerk Nicole Murphy on Wednesday afternoon identified the suspect as Nash D. Stone. Croizer on Wednesday confirmed that the suspect was a high school student living in the Kingston City School District, but was unsure whether he attended Kingston High School or another school. Nash was released from custody pending a court hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
School district officials did not return calls prior to deadline. The district’s sole public comment came in the form of an “important message” pop-up alert on its official website on Wednesday morning.
“A threat toward Kingston High School was reported to building administration,” read the alert. “KCSD responded to the threat immediately and worked collaboratively with the Kingston Police Department to identify the individual and bring them into custody. The safety of our students is our highest priority and we thank the KPD for their swift action in assisting with this situation.”
School districts across the country have heightened security and awareness in the wake of numerous shootings on school grounds. In Kingston, students joined walkout protests in the weeks following the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Days later, Schools Superintendent Paul Padalino addressed school safety as a constant concern.
“I would say that these are focusing events for school districts like ours,” Padalino said in February 2018. “We have a single point of entry in all our schools as it is, all of our school buildings have buzzers on the doors and cameras. We have SROs and security guards. We have building safety plans in place and drills that we conduct constantly. But this is just another reminder. It’s another opportunity for me to reach out to the principals and say, ‘Hey, make sure you’re checking all those outer doors. Make sure teachers aren’t propping doors when they have to run to their car. Make sure that custodians when they walk past doors, they check them. Make sure that if there’s something that doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t, and you need to take action’ … I think we have good security procedures and plans in place, and the drills are done. But you can never be too safe and you can never go over this enough.”
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