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LISBON -- An 11-year-old village boy whose bomb threat resulted in the evacuation of McKinley Elementary School was placed on probation for his actions, but other youths contemplating doing the same thing were warned they may not be as fortunate.
"Usually, when someone does this sort of thing we lock them up because we cannot tolerate this, and we are not going to tolerate it," said Columbiana County Juvenile Court magistrate Doug King told the boy during Friday's sentencing hearing.
"As you know, I could lock you up for the next 10 years. That's about as long as you've been alive," he added.
The elementary school was evacuated on March 6 after a student found the words "bomb school" scrawled on the second-floor boys restroom wall. While students and staff waited outside, firefighters and police searched the school, but nothing was found.
The boy later confessed to the school principal, resulting in the youth being charged with inducing panic, which is the juvenile court equivalent of a second-degree felony since it resulted in students being evacuated. Had there been no evacuation, the charge would have been a misdemeanor.
The boy pleaded guilty to the charge Friday, which carries a maximum possible sentence of incarceration in a state juvenile detention facility until his 21st birthday. As part of a plea deal reached with the county prosecutor's office, the boy was sentenced instead to three months in the county juvenile detention facility, which was suspended by King, who placed him on probation and ordered him to perform two days of community service and continue undergoing counseling. The boy had been on home confinement since March but that was lifted.
Prior to the hearing, King met with assistant county prosecutor Bret Apple and the defense attorney, and despite the seriousness of what occurred in today's climate of school shootings, no one thought incarceration was a good idea given the boy's age and the fact he had no prior record.
King questioned the wisdom of even sending the boy to the county juvenile detention facility, where he would be in contact with older boys who committed much more serious crimes. "Sometimes you put a good kid with a bad kid and that equals all bad kids in the end," he said.
Apple agreed placing the boy with other older juveniles was inappropriate given his age and diminutive size, but that should not be interpreted that the prosecutor's office "will go easy" on anyone else who commits a similar crime.
When asked why he wrote the message, the boy said he did it to get out of class because he was bored.
"That's not a good reason," King said. "Don't every do this again, understand?'
tgiambroni@mojonews.com