Prosecutors: Cedar Ridge High student threatened violence because he didn't want to go to school
An Orange County teenager who was arrested after he was accused of threatening violence at Cedar Ridge High School leveled the threat because he apparently did not want to go class the day he made the statement, according to prosecutors.
Posted — UpdatedDylan W. George, 18, of Mebane, was being held Monday at the Orange County jail on a $19,000 bond in connection with a felony charge of communicating a threat of mass violence on educational property.
According to investigators, his girlfriend, who also attends Cedar Ridge High, received a text last Friday about a school shooting planned for later in the day, authorities said.
In a call to 911, the woman told the dispatcher that the threat invoked a plan to open fire on campus.
According to that 911 call, the text said: "Cedar Ridge High will be getting shot up at exactly 13:00 hours, 10/25/19. Enjoy your life while y’all can.’"
The student didn't recognize the number of the phone sending the text, so the mother of the unidentified girl immediately called 911 to report the threat.
In court Monday, prosecutors said George, a senior at Cedar Ridge High, used a program to mask his cell phone number.
When asked by the 911 dispatcher if the woman or her daughter knew who had sent the text, the caller said no.
"No, she has no idea," the girl's mother told the emergency worker. "And she has no idea how they got her number. They texted her boyfriend, too."
Administrators have suspended George from class and is could be expelled, officials said.
A lawyer for George asked the judge to allow her client pre-trial release, arguing that George has no previous criminal record, and that his family could not afford to post bond.
Judge Sherri Murrell lowered George’s bond from $75,000 to $19,500, but said she is not taking the case or the charges lightly.
"Often the case is that there is an 18 year old or 22 year old with no criminal record until they go in some place and shoot 50 people," Murrell said. "And then they have a criminal record."
She asked that George undergo a mental evaluation. Should he be released from jail, Judge Murrell ordered that he is not to possess a gun, and is not to send any text messages nor disguise his phone number.
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