Male NHS Student Arrested in Bomb Threat

By Andrew Gorosko

Police this week arrested a male Newtown High School student in connection with a baseless May 8 bomb threat there, which resulted in an evacuation of the school followed by a police search for a bomb which did not exist.

Police did not identify the youth whom they charged on a warrant on June 8 because he is considered a youthful offender, and thus his identity is shielded from public disclosure by state law.

Youthful offenders are either 16 or 17 years old. The prosecution and disposition of criminal cases involving youthful offenders is held in closed court, and thus the eventual outcome of such cases is never publicly revealed.

Police said that after learning that they held a warrant for his arrest, the boy came to the police station on the afternoon of June 8 and was charged with first-degree threatening and with breach of peace.

The threatening charge is a Class D felony, in which a conviction holds a penalty of one to five years in prison and/or up to a $5,000 fine. The breach of peace charge is a Class B misdemeanor, in which a conviction holds a jail sentence of up to six months and/or up to a $1,000 fine.

Police said the youth was booked on the two criminal charges and then released from custody on a written promise to appear for an arraignment on June 20 in Danbury Youthful Offender Court.

Detective Sergeant John Cole credited School Resource Officer Domenic Costello with “good old-fashioned police work” in terms of developing the information in the case which led to Officer Costello’s applying for and then receiving an arrest warrant from the court.

Det Sgt Cole said that students know that making bomb threats is wrong.

“If you do it, know that we’ll be investigating,” Det Sgt Cole said.

The high school is equipped with extensive surveillance cameras that record activity at public areas of the buildings.

The detective sergeant said that a police investigation is continuing into a rash of recent bomb threats at Newtown Middle School. Police have identified “people of interest” in that investigation, he said.

Of the June 8 arrest in the Newtown High School bomb threat, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said, “These types of criminal acts are very disruptive to the educational process and to many, many people.”

Such incidents amount to “an unnecessary disruption,” he said.

About 9:14 am on May 8, police responded to the high school after a bomb threat was found written on a wall in a boys’ restroom there. The school was evacuated, with its occupants proceeding to the nearby sports stadium, after which they took cover in school buses that were called to the scene due to rainy conditions that morning. After the high school was searched and no bomb was found, students and school staffers were allowed to return inside.

NHS Principal Charles Dumais said of the bomb threats, “It’s a major disruption to the school.”

School officials take seriously each bomb threat which they encounter, and then follow through with the appropriate penalties being lodged against the offender, he said.

The NHS administration already has taken punitive measures against the youth who has been arrested by police, Mr Dumais said. The school principal declined to disclose those disciplinary actions, citing student confidentiality rules.

Middle School Bomb Scares

At about noon on May 27, police learned of a bomb threat at Newtown Middle School, resulting in that building’s evacuation and a police search of the building for a bomb. That threat, like the one at the high school earlier that month, proved baseless.

As in past bomb threats, handwriting indicating a bomb’s presence was found on the wall of a boys’ restroom inside the school. The school houses seventh and eighth grade students.

Other recent baseless bomb threats occurred at Newtown Middle School on May 13, May 6, May 2, and April 29.

So far in 2008, there have been about ten bomb scares in local schools, with most occurring at the middle school.

In February, police arrested a male Newtown Middle School student on charges of threatening and breach of peace for allegedly making a bomb threat at that school last October.