Jewish, Muslim students at South Carolina high school threatened

A high school in South Carolina will have extra security measures in place when students return after the Labor Day weekend after Jewish and Muslim students were threatened on social media.

A student reported “extremely vulgar” threats to the Spartanburg County Sherriff’s Office on Friday night, according to local media. The threats targeted Jewish and Muslim students at Byrnes High School.

The threats said Byrnes High School would be attacked Tuesday and included pictures of a person in a gas mask and a knife with a swastika on the handle, according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office took screenshots of the threats on Facebook posts.

Law enforcement told local media they would patrol the school over the weekend and make sweeps of the campus. There are 12 schools in the district, and each will have additional security.

“I was very alarmed when I saw the post and how vile some of the language was and how direct the threats were, and not only against our students but families of our students, and in today’s culture, the discourse that is going on and what’s happened in our own country and in other countries, we’re taking it very seriously,” Dr. Scott Turner, the district’s superintendent, said Saturday night during a news conference, according to reports.

— JTA