STATENVILLE — A teen-ager faces charges in Echols County over threatening a school shooting.

Monday, the Echols County Sheriff’s Office was told of a threat reported to the county’s school system, a Facebook posting from Sheriff Randy Courson said.

A teen student told school officials they had received a Snapchat message over the weekend with a list of students and staff at Echols County Schools targeted in a potential shooting, the Facebook posting said.

An investigation, including a search warrant for social media, was carried out and the threat was found to be false, “with the sole intent of inducing fear and panic within the school system,” the sheriff’s post said.

After talking with a juvenile suspect and confronting them with evidence, the juvenile confessed and admitted the attack plans were false, Courson said online.

The suspect, a 15-year-old, has been charged with felony false public alarm and misdemeanor false report of a crime, the sheriff’s office said.

Anyone with information about potential threats to students or school staff should report it to the sheriff’s office and school officials; tipsters may remain anonymous, he said.

The Echols County threat came in the wake of a deadly school shooting Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School near Winder in which four people were killed and a 14-year-old student there arrested. Since then, several false alarms and Internet rumors have sprouted about other supposed planned school shootings in Georgia.