LEECHBURG: Police are charging a student with writing a threat that closed Leechburg Area School District buildings Jan. 16.
Officer Michael Diebold said the 12-year-old boy was arrested about 1 p.m. Thursday.
School officials confirmed the arrest and said they are planning programs to tell students such threats are not pranks and there can be serious consequences.
Thursday's arrest follows by one day a court ruling concerning another boy accused of making a similar threat last year. That boy was found to be delinquent. He is the fourth Leechburg Area student to be charged who either confessed or was convicted of making a threat at the school.
The 12-year-old arrested Thursday is the fifth student accused of the same crime in as many years.
District Superintendent Blair Kucinski said few students have been involved in what some say is an ill-advised tradition.
"In every instance an arrest has been made and there has been a confession or a conviction," Kucinski said.
Diebold said the boy arrested Thursday is a first-year student at the junior high school where the threat was made. He declined to otherwise identify him or the circumstances.
The boy was placed in the custody of juvenile probation officers and was to be sent to a shelter.
A detention hearing is scheduled for this morning. Unless a delay is requested, a court hearing could be held within 30 days, the arresting officer said.
Diebold said the threat was scrawled on a bathroom wall. It read, as misspelled, "I'm gonna blow this school sky high at exactely 1:50 Thursday."
The boy is charged with terroristic threats, risking a catastrophe, disorderly conduct, making a false alarm and institutional vandalism.
Leechburg police said Valley News Dispatch handwriting analyst Michelle Dresbold looked at the handwriting of the suspect and that of five other students. Dresbold ruled out the five and told police that the other writing was a match, police said.
