Quick action has arrests near after school closed

By ROBIN SHANNON

and

KEVIN CHIRI

Staff Reporters

RESERVE – East St. John High School was closed for classes on Friday due to bomb and arson threats, but local officials were quickly making it clear to the suspects involved that the penalty for such threats would be quick and severe.

St. John Schools Superintendent Michael Coburn made the decision on Thursday to close the school, after two bomb threats during the week, and then a MySpace posting which threatened to burn the school down.

The MySpace post also asked if any other students would like to join in, and eight others responded. Incredibly, the threat was public for anyone to see with the name of the MySpace page readily visible, as well as all eight names of the students who supported the idea.

By Friday morning, St. John Sheriff’s Office investigators were already questioning the student who had the MySpace page, had talked to other students who had their names listed, and were rapidly getting close to those who made the bomb threats, by getting a court order to get the phone records where the threats were made from.

“We want to send a clear message that if you do this kind of thing, you will be caught,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Maj. Mike Tregre said.

Tregre said the suspect who posted the MySpace threat may be arrested now, or have his case sent to the grand jury. Those who made the bomb threats will be charged with domestic terrorism.

The incidents this week follow a situation last week at East St. John High where bullets were found in a school nurses mailbox. The school was evacuated for a time, then students returned to class.

Tregre said the bomb threats were called to the school on Tuesday and Wednesday, but then when the MySpace posting was added to the threats, the level of anxiety got bad enough to take action.

“We had teachers who were scared, so we met on Thursday afternoon for three hours with the Sheriff’s Office and FBI, then decided to close the school for the safety of all,” Coburn said.

Coburn said he met with the faculty on Thursday afternoon and told them everything they knew at the time.

“This is very serious since it makes us lose valuable education time, and it is something where we will prosecute these students to the fullest extent of the law,” Coburn added.

Coburn said that an FBI investigator came to the school and “was amazing” the way he used law enforcement computer technology to track the MySpace posting to get the name, and then find the eight students who had listed their names.

Coburn also said that the recently passed cell phone policy for the schools, which allows students to have them on campus, will be reviewed.

“We believe the bomb threat calls came from a student with a cell phone on campus,” he said. “And when the threats got out, it created havoc on campus with all the kids calling their parents to come get them. So we will be reviewing the cell phone policy and possibly changing it back to what it was.”

As for copycat threats now, Coburn said he can’t do more than they have done to stop this.

“When this get public you always worry about that,” he said. “But hopefully when kids see that someone is prosecuted and goes to jail, it will keep that from happening. We can’t stop the calls, all we can do is keep people safe and that’s what we’re making sure to do.”