BREAKING NEWS: Oceanside Middle School Threat Leads To Charges

Wednesday Morning Update:
OMS Community,
Yesterday at 3:00 pm a staff person reported to me that a threat that had been made by a student about bringing a gun to school and shooting people, and after another student told him to stop talking about it, that child and his family were threatened.

Upon hearing this information, I reported it to the Knox County Sheriff’s Department. Law enforcement investigated and charged the student with terrorizing and tampering with a witness. Law enforcement assured me that there was no access to weapons in the student’s home.

As reported in the Village Soup news article posted last night, the student is not at school today, and we will be working with the superintendent on a re-entry meeting at some point in the future for the student.

This morning, we had Deputy Chief Tim Carrol and Thomaston Police Chief Tim Hoppe speak to our faculty. In addition, we had, and will continue to have, law enforcement visiting our campus today to reassure our OMS community.

At OMS and RSU #13, we take the safety of your children very seriously and are doing everything in our power to make our school a safe learning environment.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Bill Gifford,
OMS Principal

BREAKING NEWS: Thomaston, Maine - According to Knox County Sheriff's Office,
Knox County Sheriff’s Office investigated a possible threat that was made at the Oceanside Middle School in Thomaston at approximately 3:30 this afternoon.

Administration from the school spoke with Deputies regarding a juvenile in the school had made threats to another student regarding when he came to school tomorrow, he was going to “shoot it up!” Another student apparently overheard the conversation and tried to intervene and the student threatened him too to not say anything or he would do harm to him as well.

Sgt. John Palmer and Deputy Paul Spear interviewed witnesses and the suspect juvenile. After a brief interview with the suspect and his father, the juvenile was charged with Class D, Misdemeanor, Terrorizing and a Class C, Felony, Tampering with a Witness.


Through the investigation, it was determined that the suspect juvenile has no means to carry out the threat and that he stated he was “just trash talking.” He also now realizes he shouldn’t have said it according to Sgt. Palmer. We do not believe there is any more threat concerning this incident.

Unfortunately, it is a troubling time concerning school safety and the horrific actions that have been carried out in this country. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office always tries to assure the safety of all people of Knox County and encourages anyone to not only, “see something, say something”, but if you, “hear something, say something.” I give credit to the young student that spoke up and told someone about this potential threat. The Sheriff’s Office will investigate all people’s concerns and will appropriately pursue legal action if necessary. These types of occurrences will be dealt with seriously to continue to assure that safety for all.