Saturday, April 24, 1999
Tristate schools act upon threats
Fears keep some kids out of class
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEW RICHMOND — Students arriving at New Richmond High School Friday morning were greeted by a cadre of police officers as school officials took seriously a Wednesday prank that indicated the school might be the target of violence.
Principal Monti H. Mallow said two statements written in a second-floor men's restroom said the school would be the target Friday of worse violence than that experienced Tuesday at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
At least seven other Tristate schools have reported threatening incidents this week. Threats of copycat attacks around the nation have resulted in dozens of suspensions and arrests and caused some schools to evacuate or
cancel classes.
At New Richmond, one message was scrawled on the back of the restroom door; the other on a towel dispenser.
“We are still investigating,” Mr. Mallow said. “We are trying to narrow down when it occurred. It was discovered by a student and reported to us.”
Rumors spread, embellishing the story to the point that between 25 percent and 30 percent of the school's 650 students were kept home by parents, the principal said.
“Normally our attendance is 95 or 96 percent. When parents called, I told them that certainly I understood their feelings about keeping their children home, but then I asked them: "What are you going to do Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday?'”
On arrival Friday, students were told to report directly to their rooms and were not permitted to leave until police used metal detectors to check them, their lockers, school bags and cars, officials said.
In other incidents at Tristate schools:
• In Mount Orab, students at Western Brown High School were kept in their classrooms Friday morning after police were called to investigate a report of a gun on school property. They found a 12-gauge, pump-action, sawed-off shotgun.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested and will be arraigned in Brown County Juvenile Court on Monday, accused of bringing the weapon to school. Police did not release his name. They would not say whether any threats were made.
School officials called police about 8:15 a.m. saying there was a gun on campus. A Mount Orab officer and an assistant principal secured the weapon while students were kept in classes.
Mount Orab Police believe the youth took the gun to the school as part of a quarrel over a girl, Chief John Dunn said.
For the few remaining weeks of the school year, a Mount Orab police officer will be assigned to the high school. While there is no additional threat to the students, he said, the officer's presence should offer some comfort to students and their families, especially after the Colorado killing spree.
• A seventh-grade boy at Liberty Junior School and a ninth-grade boy at Lakota Freshman School have been suspended and face expulsion after making threats against students Thursday in separate incidents. Union Township police have charged the ninth-grader, a 15-year-old boy, with four counts of aggravated menacing. No charges have been filed yet in the Liberty incident.
• A fourth-grade student at Mason's Western Row Elementary School has been suspended for four days and charged by police after making threatening remarks to fellow classmates over lunch on Wednesday. No weapons were found, said school spokeswoman Shelley Benesh.
• In the Carlisle Schools, all buildings were locked down Thursday afternoon in response to an incident at Carlisle's junior high school. A 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday and charged as a juvenile with trafficking in marijuana in a school zone and violating probation. Carlisle police said threats were made Thursday against teachers and other students who might have been witnesses. The boy allegedly offered someone $500 to have witnesses injured or killed.
• At Middletown High School two freshmen and one sophomore face police charges and have been removed from school after officials found a dozen firecrackers in one student's locker and on the bodies of two others.
Principal Gary Perkins said information gathered by his staff indicated the high-powered firecrackers were to have been set off between first and second lunches in hallways and one restroom. All three students were removed from school and face disciplinary hearings next week.
• At Middletown's Vail Middle School several students face police charges and disciplinary hearings following three separate incidents this week.
In the first, a 12-year-old told several students he was going to become a Trenchcoat Mafia member and bring his father's gun to school. In the second incident, a 13-year-old boy brought an instrument containing brass knuckles and a 3-inch blade to school.
Friday, two seventh-grade boys who had been allegedly threatening a seventh-grade girl on and off for the past month were identified and removed from school. They face school disciplinary hearings next week and police charges.
Some stay home
Doris Childers kept her grandson, Joe, home from New Richmond High School on Friday. “He was anxious and did not want to go if he did not have to. Of course, there was con cern,” Ms. Childers said. “I have all of this (news from Littleton) in the back of my mind.”
Andy Sergent, 17, a senior, stayed home after he learned of the message scrawled in the New Richmond bathroom. “There's every kind of group you could imagine (there). There's no Trenchcoat Mafia but there's people who dress all in black and stuff,” he said.
Principal Mallow said dealing with such pranks “is difficult in the charged atmosphere we have right now. It is hard to make people realize our school is as safe as it has ever been.”
The police and searches were ordered “because I felt it important to reassure our community that we take this seriously” even though there was no evidence to back up the threat and that it seems unusual someone would announce such intentions beforehand.
If the investigation leads to the author of the graffiti, appropriate punishment shall be meted and professional help provided should it be needed, officials said. “It had a very disruptive affect on our school the last few days,” Mr. Mallow said.
He said the school used an emergency plan already developed by the district for such an occurrence and that it worked well. He said New Richmond, and other school districts nationwide, are surely reviewing or developing such plans in the wake of Littleton.
New Richmond also plans to use a U.S. Justice Department advisory that provides 20 common traits of youths who have caused school-associated violent deaths to identify any possibly troubled youths in the school system.
Meanwhile, students were quick to comment about the bathroom message.
“At first, it seems kind of scary, but them it makes you mad. It was not very bright,” said Baron Hill, 17, a senior and varsity basketball player.
“They had to be pretty immature to go up there and write something that stupid,” said Melissa Riel, another senior.
“Why would someone let everyone know they were going to do it?” asked Sarah Mallow, 17, a junior and daughter of the school principal. “They just wanted a day off school,” she said.
Phillip Pina and Sue Kiesewetter contributed to this story.
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