Beaver students' handwriting tested after threats

Similar messages referring to Virginia Tech were left in three area schools.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Threats in schools after shootings elsewhere are a growing problem, according to Columbiana County Sheriff David Smith.
School officials in the Beaver Local, Lisbon and United Local districts have found messages since last week referring to Virginia Tech -- where a gunman killed 32 students and faculty members April 16 before killing himself.
Smith noted that Friday was the anniversary of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 13 people, then themselves.
"Myself and my staff have spoken at practically every school in the county urging the kids not to make the threats in jest or off the cuff," Smith said. "You have to take them seriously."
No one has been charged at any of the schools; Smith said charges will be filed if the writers can be identified.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for these threats," Smith said.
Officials at Beaver Local High School closed the school Tuesday after a threat was found written on a panel in a boy's restroom stall earlier in the day. It said, "33 at Virgina [sic]. I can do better than that."
Smith said some Beaver Local students were asked Tuesday and Wednesday to give handwriting samples.
A message was written on a boy's restroom stall door in Lisbon. It said, "I can do better than V-Tech on Friday, April 27. They shall pay. Click Click Boom Mother -------."
The Beaver Local panel was taken to the county jail in case the writing can be matched. The door was taken by Lisbon police and stored at the village hall.
Police said fingerprints would not be proof of who wrote the messages.
A vague warning was found Thursday, also written in a boy's restroom stall at United.
Photos were taken of the messages. It may have been a copy of a similar message written earlier in the week at the school.
Internet message?
United Local High School Principal William Young wondered if there was some message being posted on the Internet urging kids to make the threats.
The Associated Press reported bomb and other threats in at least seven states after the Virginia Tech shooting.
Young said educators were working to determine the person who wrote the message.
Lisbon Superintendent Donald Thompson and Beaver Local Superintendent Willard Adkins could not be reached to comment.
The threats at Beaver Local High School were found early Tuesday. Grades nine through 12 were eventually sent home.
Smith said rumors of a shooting and the discovery of a locker full of weapons were spread by cell phones to the East Liverpool schools and sent that district into a lockdown.
"It just escalated," Smith said.
He addressed the Beaver Local students at an assembly Wednesday morning, warning them not to jump to conclusions.
An 18-year old Columbiana student was sentenced in 2006 after making a phone bomb threat against schools in the Salem, Leetonia, Lisbon, Columbiana and Crestview school districts.
wilkinson@vindy.com