A 21-year-old paraprofessional at Westpark Elementary School was booked on charges of interfering with an educational institution and making threats after Buckeye police say she posted a school shooting threat to Instagram while she was on campus. Sharde Booker was taken into custody Tuesday and released on her own recognizance ahead of a status conference scheduled for September 17.
According to court documents and police statements reported by KTAR, Booker was booked on a Class 3 felony charge of interfering with an educational institution along with a misdemeanor threats charge. Booker had been employed at Westpark Elementary for two years, and the case, first reported by AZ Family's Stephanie Duprey, has drawn scrutiny because the accused is a school employee rather than a student.
Court records show the investigation began after Meta flagged an Instagram post containing a school shooting threat that was uploaded on September 1 at 1:58 p.m., according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Location data placed the account at Westpark Elementary at 2:29 p.m. that same day and was forwarded to the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, the state's central intelligence fusion center, which then alerted Buckeye police. The timeline shows barely half an hour elapsed between the post going up and investigators pinpointing the account's location on campus.
Aide Says Threat Followed a Confrontation at School
Police interview records indicate Booker admitted to making the post and acknowledged its severity, telling investigators the vulgar message was prompted by an incident earlier that day in which she said she was spat on and called a slur at the school. That account, which the station's report attributes to Booker's own statements to investigators, has not been independently addressed by the district and remains an allegation rather than a confirmed finding.
The Buckeye Elementary School District released a statement reassuring families there was no ongoing threat to the campus and emphasizing that student and staff safety remains its highest priority. Westpark Elementary is part of Buckeye Elementary School District 33, and district paraprofessional job specifications require candidates to hold a high school diploma, obtain an Arizona Department of Public Safety Identity Verified Print Fingerprint Clearance Card, and maintain CPR and First Aid certification, per BeBee job listings for the district.
What the Charges Mean Under Arizona Law
Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-2911, threatening physical harm to students or school personnel constitutes criminal interference with an educational institution, a charge that can carry felony penalties regardless of whether a school is actually evacuated or closed, according to Law for Kids. That statute governs safety disruptions and threat violations across Arizona school grounds, meaning prosecutors do not need to show an evacuation occurred for the felony charge to apply.
A Campus With a Recent History of Threat Investigations
This is not the first threat investigation at Westpark Elementary in recent memory. Buckeye Police Charge 12-Year-Old at the same campus in December, when a student was charged with making threats to shoot peers; officers found no weapons during that search. Buckeye police also investigated the school in January 2026 after staff discovered an 11-year-old student with written notebook threats that officers determined were inspired by an animated television show, and no criminal charges were pursued after the involved families declined prosecution.
The West Valley has seen a broader pattern of school threat scares throughout 2026, including a student arrest at Buckeye's Youngker High School in January, a bomb threat evacuation at Canyon View High School in March, and another bomb threat that emptied the Great Hearts Roosevelt campus in Buckeye in August. Statewide, the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center recorded a massive spike in school threat reports in September 2024 — 130 reports in 20 days compared with 177 in the preceding eight months combined — a surge that pushed state officials to release $15 million in emergency safety funds, according to data reported by KJZZ.
Booker's case now heads toward a status conference later this month, with the felony interference charge and misdemeanor threats charge still pending and no trial date yet set.
