Teen arrested in connection with alleged online racist threats causing Charlottesville public schools closure

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A teen has been arrested in connection with an alleged racist threat that caused all public schools in Charlottesville, Va. to close for the second day in a row, police said.

Charlottesville police told Fox News a teen was arrested Friday morning for making the alleged threats targeting "specific ethnic groups" at Charlottesville High School.

Charlottesville was the site of a rally in 2017 during which a white nationalist demonstrator used a vehicle to kill a counter-protester.

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The school district’s nine schools were closed Thursday and Friday for precautionary reasons after police alerted school officials about the threat Wednesday.

Images circulating online referred to a post on online messaging board 4chan. The post included a racist meme and threatened to attack students of color, according to the Washington Post.

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Police said the 17-year-old suspect, who was not named, faces a felony charge of threats to commit serious bodily harm to persons on school property and a misdemeanor charge of harassment by computer.

Charlottesville police told Fox News the 17-year-old boy, who was arrested in Albemarle County, is not a student at Charlottesville city schools.

In a statement on Facebook, district officials said they wanted to condemn "the fact that this threat was racially charged."

"We do not tolerate hate or racism," officials with Charlottesville City Schools said in the post. "The entire staff and School Board stand in solidarity with our students of color — and with people who have been singled out for reasons such as religion or ethnicity or sexual identity in other vile threats made across the country or around the world."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.