This school year alone, the county police department has received 140 threats to schools in the county.
Police Chief Marcus Jones said that when working with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), it is not the goal to make an arrest in every case of a threat, but the case of a Wootton High School student arrested last week “is entirely different.”
Alex Ye, 18, was arrested and charged for allegedly planning a school shooting. He was ordered to be held without bond Friday afternoon.
Jones said Friday morning that particularly in instances of shooting threats or bomb threats, when students are identified, officers will visit the family home to speak with parents and the student to make sure the student “is not capable of carrying out said threat.” In those cases, no arrest is made and the case is referred back to the school system for potential further discipline.
“But this case is different,” Jones said regarding Ye. Jones described a 129-page manifesto written by Ye, in which the student wrote about targeting his former elementary school — Lakewood Elementary — and strategized how to access classrooms at Wootton. Jones said a school counselor said Ye made statements about committing a school shooting every time they spoke, and that he was fixated on it. And even after being removed from the school, Ye said he could do something at graduation because he lived close to the school, according to Jones.
Ye had been taking online classes and has not been physically present at school since fall 2022, according to MCPS.
