14-year-old girl charged after threatening LGBTQ students at Holtsville school, cops say
A 14-year-old Medford student was charged with threatening LGBTQ students at a high school in Holtsville last week, Suffolk police said Monday.
Police said the girl, who goes to Eastern Suffolk BOCES Sequoya High School in Holtsville, sent derogatory comments about the LGBTQ community to another 14-year-old student at 6:20 a.m. Thursday. Police said she also sent threatening text messages to kill any LGBTQ person at the school and every girl at the school.
Suffolk County hate crimes detectives arrested the girl Monday morning and charged her with aggravated harassment as a felony hate crime and misdemeanor making a threat of mass harm. She was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in Suffolk County Family Court.
The girl was not identified because she is a minor.
Eastern Suffolk BOCES chief operating officer Ryan Ruf released a statement saying: "Eastern Suffolk BOCES does not comment on individual student issues. However, we have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind, and take these matters with the utmost seriousness. We have been and will continue working with the Suffolk County Police in its investigation and proceedings related to this matter."
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
