A Thompson School District high school student reportedly posted a threatening message with photo of a weapon aimed at Loveland schools Thursday evening, but police determined schools did not need to be closed Friday.

According to a release from Loveland Police Sgt. Mike Halloran, a 14-year-old student from Mountain View High School sent a private Facebook message to another 14-year-old Mountain View High School student with photo of the first student holding a gun alongside a message stating the second student should not come to school “tomorrow.”

The second student eventually shared the private message to his friends as a Facebook post.

Halloran stated Loveland detectives, school resource officers and Thompson School District officials investigated the threat.

“Although ill-conceived, the private message between these two participants was intended and received as a joke,” the release stated. The weapon pictured, it also stated, was determined to be a BB gun.

Authorities were first contacted when students who saw the message on Facebook and told their parents.

“Once law enforcement gets involved, we let them take the lead on this,” Thompson School District spokesman Michael Hausmann said. “… We work very closely with law enforcement and try to cooperate as much as we can with them, we want to help as much as we can.”

An email from Hausmann to parents stated that Loveland Police Department investigators launched an investigation into that post and found it was intended to be a prank.

Even so, the message stated, officials from Loveland police and the school district are working with the families involved and are taking the incident seriously.

As federal case law dictates, the school district gets involved in an incident of this nature, even when it occurs off campus or on social media.

“It’s the idea if something occurs outside the school that would impact the function of the safety of a school, that’s considered ‘nexus,'” Margaret Crespo, chief academic officer for Thompson School District, said. “Therefore, we have an obligation to make sure the child is dealt with appropriately.”

An email signed by Principal Todd Ball said that Loveland High School was not included as a target in the threatening post Thursday night.

Police do not “believe that there was any intended malice or plan to carry out violence upon the school or its occupants.”

Charges, if any are deemed warranted, against the students will be discussed with the Eighth Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

“Criminal charges involve the act and also the mental state,” Halloran said. “So we need to determine both of those things to find out if what they did and what they were thinking matches up with criminal behavior or if it is just poor behavior.”

Dana Rieck: 970-635-3630, rieckd@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/DanaRieckRH