A 14-year-old Cocalico Middle School student was arrested Thursday for threatening a school shooting, in what officials believe was a copycat of a similar threat at Garden Spot earlier this week.
The eighth-grader was charged with terroristic threats and criminal mischief. He is being held in the county youth detention facility.
“Students need to realize we are going to be stern and strict and aggressive in our response,” said David Davies, assistant to the superintendent for administrative services.
“Our number-one concern is going to be the safety and security of the students. But we are going to put some energy and resources into catching the individual.”
School officials Wednesday found two threats written inside a stall in a boys’ bathroom. The threats said there would be a shooting on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27.
Officials believe the student wrote the Jan. 27 threat first, realized that was a Saturday and then wrote the threat for Jan. 25, or Thursday.
The school sent a letter home Wednesday, informing parents about the threat.
Between 250 and 270 students stayed home Thursday, said superintendent Bruce Sensenig. That’s about five times the normal absentee rate.
Those students will be excused from school, Sensenig said, noting that these kind of absences will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
The student, who had no history of conflict at Cocalico, stayed home Thursday and was arrested there.
The student is on an out-of-school suspension pending a recommendation, which could include expulsion, from the district to the school board.
A threat was found last week on the wall of a boys’ bathroom at Eastern Lancaster County School District’s Garden Spot, where the middle and high schools are connected. It said there would be a shooting Tuesday, Jan. 24.
About a third of Garden Spot students stayed home from school that day. Also, parents were upset because school officials did not inform them about the threat.
The investigation into the Garden Spot threat is continuing.
- CONTACT US: cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024
