Liberty police question middle school student over school threat

Staff report

LIBERTY

Students at three Mahoning Valley schools were evacuated Monday – two for a short time and one for the day – after bomb threats were discovered.

Liberty’s W.S. Guy Middle and E.J. Blott Elementary schools, which are connected, and Mahoning County Career and Techncial Center were evacuated because of the threats.

Liberty police took a student into custody Monday in connection with a threat that prompted the closure of the two Liberty schools.

Police questioned a male sixth-grader at W.S. Guy over a handwritten note containing a bomb threat, police Chief Richard Tisone said.

“The note indicated a bomb would detonate at the school, within the next three days, which would have bought him three days off from school,” Tisone said.

Police reviewed video surveillance footage and matched handwriting from the threat to handwriting from the student’s schoolwork, Tisone said.

Both W.S. Guy Middle and E.J. Blott Elementary were briefly evacuated Monday morning while officials investigated. There are about 360 students enrolled at the middle school and about 525 enrolled at the elementary school.

The student is expected to face felony inducing-panic charges through the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center, Tisone said.

A prosecutor with the JJC said Monday afternoon that charges have not yet been filed.

MCCTC was evacuated shortly before noon and then closed for the day after someone wrote a bomb threat on a restroom wall. School officials said the evacuation was a precaution.

A student later admitted writing the threat on the door of a restroom stall as a joke. The restroom is near the school’s main entrance.

Canfield police are investigating, and school will resume today.

“We take these actions very seriously,” said John Zehentbauer, MCCTC assistant superintendent. “What students may think is funny, ends up being a very serious disruption of the school day and will end in serious consequences as school protocol, and even police charges could be at stake.”