LEETONIA SCHOOLS Boy faces discipline over note about teacher

The boy told police he was 'just joking around.'
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LEETONIA -- A 13-year-old Washingtonville boy who wrote a note threatening a teacher's life could spend time in a juvenile detention facility for violating the terms of his probation.
Police said the seventh-grade boy was in an in-school suspension classroom at Leetonia Junior-Senior High School, and in the two-line note threatened to kill the in-school suspension classroom teacher.
Said he was joking: Leetonia Chief John Soldano said the boy told police he was "just joking around" Monday when he passed the note to another student.
"The boy said the note was just a joke, but these days, you just never know," Soldano said. "It was an indirect threat, but we take these situations very seriously."
The teacher intercepted the note and school officials notified police, Soldano said.
Police released the boy to his parents, and turned the case information over to the boy's probation officer. School officials imposed a 10-day suspension.
Dane Walton, Columbiana County Juvenile Court director, said the boy will appear in juvenile court in the next two weeks on the probation violation.
Among the court's options are that the boy could be fined, sentenced to a juvenile detention facility, or removed from his home, Walton said.
Walton did not know the previous circumstances under which the boy was placed on probation.
Schools' policy: Schools Superintendent Lynn King said the district has a zero-tolerance policy toward such threats.
"We properly handled the situation internally and within our code of conduct," King said. "It might have been an idle threat, but in the climate of today's society, we could not afford to ignore it."