Police investigators working with school officials were able to identify the teen, who admitted his part in the incident after speaking with investigators. He said he did it on a “dare” from other students after hearing the reports of threats at other local schools.
According to the investigation, a school employee received a phone call from a subject indicating there was a bomb in the school. Police from Trotwood and surrounding communities helped evacuate and search the building.
Porter said the incident tied up numerous public safety personnel and disrupted school activities for more than two hours.
The police department is pursuing felony charges of inducing panic and delinquency. Other charges will be reviewed once the teen has been arraigned, Porter said. As of this afternoon, the boy remains detained at the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center.
On Oct. 27, three Dayton area schools were evacuated because of reported bomb threats. Those schools were Longfellow Alternative School, 245 Salem Ave., and Meadowdale High School, 3873 Whitestone Court, in Dayton, and Jefferson High School, 2701 S. Union Road, in Montgomery County.
Both Dayton schools received threatening calls that morning, similar to previous incidents in which no bomb or threatening device were found in the buildings. At Jefferson, a threat was discovered written on a bathroom wall.
Two 14-year-old boys were taken into custody in the threat at Meadowdale, according to the sheriff’s office. Two other students, both females, were taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and unruly juvenile for cursing at deputies who were directing the evacuation, according to a sheriff’s incident report released Thursday, Oct. 29.
Earlier this month at Tecumseh High School, a student wrote a threat on a bathroom stall. That student was caught, but not before the Clark County Sheriff's Office and bomb-detecting dogs from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Dayton International Airport Police responded, Tecumseh Superintendent Norm Glissman said.
Another threat followed at Tecumseh, but the student who made it was quickly identified.
Also earlier this month, Greenon High School was evacuated after a student texted a bomb threat to herself.
The Ohio Department of Homeland Security has collected information on multiple threats statewide in a short period of time, spokesman Dustyn Fox said. The agency issued two bulletins this month to notify schools of the threats and to remind administrators to stick to their school emergency plans.
EARLIER REPORT (Oct. 21)
The high school received a bomb threat this morning, similar to several other fake threats schools in the region have dealt with recently, and a search of the Trotwood school’s property turned up nothing, said Trotwood-Madison Schools Superintendent Kevin Bell.
North Union Road was reopened by the early afternoon as the false-threat call drew a large law enforcement response from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Trotwood police.
Bell said extra measures were taken to ensure student safety, especially in light of the false threat made at Meadowdale High School on Tuesday. After students were evacuated to a secure location at Meadowdale, a gang fight erupted there and authorities believe the phoned-in threat was made to enable the gang violence.
Bell praised school staff and students for their actions and being calm and orderly during the evacuation.