Trinity High School in Louisville, Kentucky, canceled Thursday classes after an alleged threat was made against the school on Twitter due to football coach Jeff Brohm's decision to turn down the Louisville job and instead remain at Purdue.
Brohm and his brothers, Greg and Brian, attended Trinity. Their father, Oscar, is an assistant coach with the football team.
Brohm's decision to stay at Purdue, spurning his alma mater of Louisville, was announced Wednesday after he had met with Cardinals athletic director Vince Tyra a day earlier. It was unclear when the threat was posted on Twitter.
Trinity, an all-boys Catholic school, said in a statement Wednesday night that the school was notified of the threat by St. Matthews (Kentucky) Police and that classes Thursday were closed.
St. Matthews police Chief Barry Wilkerson told ESPN that his department and the FBI are investigating the matter.
"We take these threats seriously, especially toward a school," Wilkerson said. "We're going to investigate as much as we can at this point. It's difficult when you have Twitter accounts to trace back, so it's a little more complex than pushing a button and figuring out who it is. We'll investigate it fully and bring charges if necessary."
At a news conference Thursday, St. Matthews police Maj. Tony Cobaugh said the charge on the police report related to the threat is terroristic threatening second degree, a Class D felony.
Cobaugh also noted that the reaction was appropriate whether the tweet was serious or satirical.
"It doesn't matter if the nature of it at the moment was satirical. It caused alarm. It's a threat," Cobaugh said. "You're talking about burning down a school building. I don't think there's any other way to look at it."
Wilkerson said Wednesday that even if the tweet was sent as a joke, there is still potential the individual could face charges.
"There are still ramifications, even if it's a hoax," Wilkerson said. "I think the FBI has made it pretty clear in some of the publications they've put out, a hoax, it disrupts the school, the students and the community in general. We will definitely take it seriously and if (Trinity) wish to bring charges they can, we can still do it ourselves as a terroristic threatening charge.
"Even if it's a hoax, it's not a good thing to do, it puts a lot of people in a bad situation. So yes, we would probably still prosecute if our commonwealth attorney wishes to do that."