Teen charged in false threat made against Rolesville High

One week after Wake County law enforcement authorities warned parents about the consequences of their children making phony threats, authorities have charged a Raleigh teenager in connection with a Code Red lockdown on Thursday that kept students at Rolesville High School in their classrooms beyond the normal dismissal time while police investigated what turned out to be a hoax.

Kelton Didier Kombo, 16, an eleventh-grade student at Rolesville High School, bonded out of the Wake County Detention Center overnight after he was arrested in connection with making a false report to incite mass violence on school property, according to court documents. He was released to the custody of his parents on an unsecured bond.

Kombo appeared Friday in court for a first appearance hearing.

Court documents state Kombo called the Wake County 911 center and said three times that there was an ongoing school shooting even though there was none.

After the threat was investigated, Lisa Luten, spokeswoman for Wake County Public School System, said there was no evidence any shots were fired, no one was injured and no one was in danger.

According to Rolesville High principal Dhedra Lassiter, police alerted the school to a phoned-in threat just after 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Rolesville police told WRAL News Friday that Kombo allegedly made the call from North Carolina on a disposable phone.

Regular dismissal is scheduled for 2:18 p.m. Cars didn't start rolling out of the Rolesville parking lot until about an hour later on Thursday.

“The children are safe," Luten said at about 3 p.m. Thursday. "They are working on figuring out logistics for an orderly dismissal."

Tim Simmons, another Wake schools representative, said middle school bus routes were delayed as well.

Lassiter initiated an automated call to parents to let them know about the incident.

"Please know that all students were safe during the entire incident," she said.

Law enforcement officers had originally said the hoax threat was phoned in from Tennessee.

New school year brings new awareness of hoax threats

The "Code Red" lockdown came on the fourth day of school for the 2018-19 school year, and about a week after the Wake County Sheriff's Office, local police departments and the FBI joined to warn students against making idle threats against school buildings.

After the shooting at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Russ Smith, WCPSS senior director of security, said, hoax threats delivered on social media and by phone soared.

"While we don't keep an exact number, there was well over a hundred," he said.

Each threat costs law enforcement agencies valuable time and money. In the schools, learning comes to a stop, and some students stay home out of fear.

"Hoax threats are not innocent. They are not funny, and they are not harmless. In fact, they can be dangerous," Smith said.

Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison warned that hoax threats can result in real criminal consequences.

"This year, when we get a hoax coming in, somebody is going to be charged, whether we want to do it or not. Somebody is going to be charged because we have to stop this. It is costing too much money and disturbing too many classes," Harrison said.