MOUNT VERNON — A threatening message was found in a Mount Vernon Middle School bathroom Friday morning, according to a letter from Superintendent William Seder, Jr.
The letter was sent out to parents, students, and staff informing them of the message discovered in a bathroom stall, a subsequent investigation, and the district’s response.
Seder stated in his letter that bathroom stalls and walls are cleaned and examined daily. Any inappropriate or threatening graffiti found is reported to school administration and cleaned. That protocol proved beneficial Friday.
“This particular restroom was thoroughly cleaned and free of graffiti prior to the start of school today,” Seder wrote. “This was particularly important as we were quickly able to narrow down a short time frame using security cameras to identify student(s) who entered the room.”
Mount Vernon Police Captain Scott McKnight said his department was informed of the threat by the school’s resource officer.
“Early this morning we got a call from our school resource officer, Patrolman Jeremiah Armstrong, within the school,” McKnight explained. “He mainly advised us they had a threat that was discovered on one of the walls in the bathroom area via a student who reported it to them.”
The district questioned several students. Further investigation revealed that the person who reported the message found on the wall was also the student who allegedly wrote it, McKnight said. “Through the staff and Patrolman Armstrong’s investigation they were able to determine pretty quickly that this was the student,” he said, noting that officials compared handwriting samples to make that determination.
“After careful investigation, including a locker and book bag search, it was determined that the student’s actions were intended to induce panic,” Seder wrote.
The student was remanded into police custody and taken to Juvenile Court where Judge Jennifer Springer held an emergency hearing regarding an assessment. McKnight said they were making arrangements to put the student in a facility; if that was not possible, the student would be held in a juvenile detention center.
McKnight said no charges had been filed as of Friday afternoon.
“As a district we will not tolerate any threats of violence to students or staff and will take the necessary steps to evaluate such behaviors to the highest levels of discipline possible,” Seder said.
Seder said local law enforcement will be visiting the district more often in order to help provide a safe school environment. Those visits will begin Monday when specially trained officers will visit the middle and high school to familiarize themselves with the campus.
This is the second incident this week that a threatening message was found in a Knox County school. Fredericktown students discovered small pieces of paper with threats toward the school and the student body on Feb. 19. The threats were immediately turned over to school administration, who then enacted the district’s Crisis Management Plan and contacted the Fredericktown Police Department and the Fredericktown Community Fire District.
The initial investigation determined the threat to be minimal, though the probe continued as officials received more information, including details that led them to the person who allegedly wrote the notes. That student was arrested by police and transported to a detention facility to be held pending an arraignment.
Mount Vernon and Fredericktown join a number of other north central Ohio school districts who have received threats in the weeks since the massacre in Parkland, Florida. On Feb. 21, Crestline in Crawford County evacuated its district after a bomb threat was found written on a bathroom wall while Northmor in Morrow County locked down due to a written gun threat. Pioneer Career and Technology Center in Shelby evacuated its campus on Feb. 16 after the school received a bomb threat. Two more threats occurred in Crawford County last week: Bucyrus locked down its district on Feb. 12 when a threat was made on social media and Galion also received a bomb threat on Feb. 15. Alleged suspects were identified in both incidents. A threat of violence against the Galion Intermediate School, which occurred on the same day as the bomb threat, was later determined to be vandalism by a student. Mansfield City Schools received a threat on social media on Feb. 15, which was investigated by Mansfield police. That threat came from outside the county and was found not to be credible.
