BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT THOMAS -- A 14-year-old Highlands Middle School student was charged with terroristic threatening recently after a teacher got a threatening note.
The eighth-grade student allegedly left the letter on a desk after teacher Edith Mariani disciplined the child for being disruptive in class, Fort Thomas Police Officer Mark Dills said Tuesday.
Police and the school are not identifying the student because he is a juvenile.
The teacher found the note at the end of the day on May 27. The school notified police.
Officer Dills said the student wrote, "I'm going to bomb your car and if that doesn't work I'll shoot you."
Later that day, police went to the youth's home and arrested him.
The student was charged with terroristic threatening and was sent to the Mason County detention center, where juvenile boys are often housed. He spent at least one night.
"This happened right in the middle of when all that other stuff was going on in Oregon," Officer Dills said. "Obviously, this is not going to be taken lightly."
Because it was so close to the end of the school year, the student was not expelled, Superintendent Larry Stinson said.
Expulsions and suspension can only last through the end of the year. Classes ended in Fort Thomas last week.
Middle School Principal Mary Adams said the school considers the student's alleged actions very serious. "We were able to do what we felt was appropriate, and we were able to inform our staff for their safety," Ms. Adams said.
The student will answer the terroristic threatening charge through the juvenile court system.
It was the first incident of its type in two years that Officer Dills could remember coming out of Highlands.
The last time police responded to a similar incident was two years ago when a student felt he was being harassed by his peers. The student brought bullets to the school and put them in his locker. In that case, the school caught the student before school started that day and suspended him. Officer Dills said school officials handled that incident thoroughly before police arrived at the school.
