A 13-year-old student is accused of threatening to shoot up the North Whidbey Middle School, according to court documents.

The boy was taken into custody by police and did not have a gun at school.

The teenager appeared in Island County Juvenile Court March 29. Judge Carolyn Cliff found probable probable cause existed to believe he may have committed the crime of threat to bomb or injure property, which is a charge that covers firearm threats.

In court, Deputy Prosecutor Michael Safstrom said the boy moved to Oak Harbor about six months ago to live with a family member. He had been expelled from his school in West Virginia because of an assault, the deputy prosector said.

Safstrom said he was also concerned that the boy’s family planned to fly him back to the East Coast to live there. He argued that it was inappropriate because authorities in the other state wouldn’t be aware of the criminal accusation.

The boy’s attorney, Claire Highland, asked that he be released on his own recognizance. She said he is agreeable to the idea of going back to West Virginia and that he is struggling with mental health issues.

In the end, Cliff noted that the charge was “really serious” and that the student represents a danger to the community. She ordered him held in juvenile detention in lieu of $5,000 bail and ruled that he has to stay in the state while the case is pending.

According to the police report, the boy was working on an assignment in class with two other students when he told them that he had a gun, it was his last day of school and he was going to mess stuff up, although he used swear words. He told the students that he wanted to show them the gun, the report states.

Both students were alarmed by the threat.

The police report states that school officials previously contacted the boy for telling kids on a school bus that he had a gun.