Threat Prompts Extra Deputies at Orange High

The rumors suggested a shooting would happen at Orange High School Friday.

WRAL has confirmed that a 15-year-old student was taken to Burlington for a mental examination after making general threats. The unidentified student also referenced the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where more than a dozen students and teachers were killed.

School administrators and authorities investigated and found no evidence of a credible threat, Orange County Schools spokeswoman Anne D’Annunzio said. But in light of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech and a shooting at Orange High last summer, authorities decided to assign extra patrols to the school Friday, she said.

School administrators sent a phone message to parents Wednesday night to explain the rumor and the extra security measures that would be in place, D'Annunzio said.

Phone messages also went to parents of students at C.W. Stanford Middle School, which is located next to Orange High. There have been no rumors regarding anything happening on that campus.

Last August, another teen opened fire outside Orange High, wounding two students.

Alvaro Castillo, 19, is charged in connection with the shooting, as well as with the slaying of his father, whose body was found in the family's Orange County home shortly after the school shooting occurred. Castillo also referred to the Columbine High killings when he was arrested.