California woman arrested for threatening violence against Christian school

A California woman was arrested Thursday for allegedly making violent threats against a Christian school. The incident continues a troubling trend nationwide.

Antioch resident Danielle Nye, 33, was arrested by the Central County SWAT Team and detectives from the Walnut Creek Police Department on suspicion of making criminal threats, local news station KRON4 reports.

“On February 28th, Contra Costa Christian Schools (CCCS) reported to Walnut Creek Police Department that they received numerous emails and voicemails from an unknown person who spoke of vague threats of violence toward the school,” the WCPD’s press release reads. “Officers worked to identify and locate the sender and to determine if there were any credible threats.”

While officers were investigating the initial report, the school contacted the department again to report it had received more threatening emails, one of which even included a picture of a rifle.

Following Nye’s arrest, police indicated no further threats to the school’s staff or students have been reported.

“This has been a week that many of us will remember for some time,” the school said in a statement released on social media. “The unthinkable happened when the school received an email to our general mailbox that threatened gun violence.”

The statement also describes the second threat:

“During the early evening hours of March 1, we received the threat of gun violence along with a picture of what appeared to be an automatic weapon. We contacted WCPD once again and cleared the campus of students who were in drama rehearsal, calling parents to come pick them up early.”

The school remained closed for two days while investigators worked to identify the perpetrator.

“I hope that you can see that we take the safety of your precious children very seriously,” the school stated. “We have safety plans in place and we practice our safety drills regularly.”

Unfortunately, this is only the latest incident in a troubling, nationwide trend of Christian schools being threatened with violence.

As reported previously by The Lion, in August 2022, Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida received death threats, hateful calls and other harassment over its religious views on gender, sexuality and marriage. The threats were triggered because of an email a school administrator sent to students and their families explaining the school’s biblically-rooted policy regarding genders and pronoun usage. 

Threats of violence have also been made against Christian schools in St. Louis, Kansas City, San Diego and Philadelphia in the last year alone.