SKOWHEGAN — A man was arrested after a threat was made that prompted a charter school with locations in Skowhegan and Cornville to close Thursday, one in a series of unrelated security concerns that have ensnared several schools across the state this week.
Jason W. Wakefield, 49, of the Somerset County town of Detroit, a parent of a student at Community Regional Charter School, was arrested Thursday after authorities say he directed a threat at a staff member for CRCS.
Travis Works, executive director of CRCS, released a letter to parents and others explaining the closure but didn’t expand on the nature of the threat or indicate when it was made.
“This situation will be closely monitored and law enforcement will be in contact with me with any updates or concerns,” Works said in the letter.
Classes were canceled for the day at the three schools operated by CRCS and Works said they will resume Friday. Those schools are the pre-kindergarten Dimensions Academy in Cornville, Creative Children’s Academy with kindergarten through eighth grade in Skowhegan, and Overman Academy, which serves grades seven through 12 in Skowhegan.
Works later said in an email to the Morning Sentinel that he couldn’t provide any additional details beyond what was said in his letter.
Wakefield was being held at the Somerset County Jail on Thursday and was charged with terrorizing, domestic violence criminal threatening, and domestic violence terrorizing, according to sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell.
Skowhegan police, Maine State Police and the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the investigation. Calls to Skowhegan police for additional details were not returned.
Elsewhere on Thursday, schools in Topsham-based School Administrative District 75 were placed in lockdown after authorities say a Caribou man threatened to bring a gun to an unnamed elementary school in the district. The man had some sort of conflict with a former student, and threatened to find where the former student lived and bring a weapon to a school.
Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle was also put on lockdown Thursday, though a Facebook post from the college said the situation had been resolved and classes resumed later in the morning.
The threats and closures came just days after schools in Albion, Benton, Clinton and Fairfield, all part of School Administrative District 49, canceled classes due to alarming social media posts made by a former student. The man who authorities say made the threats was arrested Monday in Oklahoma, where he now lives, and held on $1 million bail.
The incidents have contributed to a tense week following the mass shootings in Lewiston last week that left 18 dead.
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