THORNDIKE — The Mount View school complex was in lock down Thursday after a student received a threatening message on social media, allegedly from a person involved in the threats to Skowhegan schools.

Waldo County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Curtis confirmed later in the day that the threat was from the same person responsible for the Skowhegan threat, and not a copycat incident.

The threat on Thursday prompted authorities to lock down the Mount View complex, meaning students couldn’t leave the building. The order was later changed to a lock out, meaning no one could enter the building but people could leave. That order was lifted altogether by the afternoon.

Curtis said that police suspected the Mount View threat was related to the Skowhegan threats, which were made over two days, disrupting schools in Maine School Administrative District 54, causing them to be closed on Wednesday and locked out on Thursday.

The FBI, Maine State Police and local police were investigating the incidents in Skowhegan on Thursday.

RSU 3’s Mount View school complex serves students from Brooks, Freedom, Jackson, Knox, Liberty, Monroe, Montville, Thorndike, Troy, Unity and Waldo.

On Wednesday, about 750 students at the elementary, middle and high schools at the Mount View complex were evacuated after a student released pepper spray in the high school.

Curtis said a 16-year-old female was issued a summons and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal use of disabling chemicals.

The two Mount View incidents, the threat Thursday and the pepper spray Wednesday, were not related, Curtis said, and as of 12:45 p.m., normal school activities had resumed at Mount View.

Colin Ellis — 861-9253

cellis@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @colinoellis

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