NMS Student Charged With Bomb Threats

By Andrew Gorosko

Police have arrested a 14-year-old boy on two criminal charges for allegedly having made two bomb threats at Newtown Middle School school last May, while he was an eighth grader there.

Police said this week they arrested the boy on a warrant on August 3 on charges of falsely reporting an incident and breach of peace in connection with baseless bomb threats that occurred at the school at 11 Queen Street on May 13 and on May 6.

At 10:48 am on May 13, a vague bomb threat was found written on a wall within the school, resulting in the school’s evacuation while police and school staffers searched the premises. The search took about 30 minutes during which students waited outside the building.

Police then reviewed surveillance videotapes from the school in seeking to determine who wrote the threat on the wall.

Also, at about 9:24 am on May 6, local volunteer fire companies were alerted of a bomb threat at the middle school, which police investigated. That case also involved a handwritten message on an interior wall indicating that a bomb was present.

In both the May 13 and May 6 incidents, the bomb scares proved baseless.

Police declined to identify the youth whom they arrested on August 3. The boy is classified as a “juvenile” because he is under age 16. The identity of people under age 18 who are charged with criminal offenses is shielded from public disclosure by state law. Their criminal cases are adjudicated in closed court and the dispositions of the proceedings are undisclosed.

After learning that police held a warrant for his arrest, the boy went to the police station at about 12:20 pm August 3, and was charged with the offenses. Police then released to boy into the custody of his mother on a written promise to appear August 18 in Danbury Juvenile Court.

At about noon on May 27, police learned of another bomb threat at the middle school, resulting in the building’s evacuation and a police search of the building for a bomb. That threat also proved baseless. No one has been arrested in connection with that threat.

On June 8, police arrested a male Newtown High School student in connection with a baseless May 8 bomb threat there, which resulted in an evacuation of the high school followed by a police search for a bomb that did not exist. Police arrested that boy on charges of first-degree threatening and breach of peace.

That youth is classified as a “youthful offender,” meaning he was age 16 or 17 when the incident occurred and his identity is shielded from public disclosure, as is the disposition of his case in Danbury Youthful Offender Court.

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

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

The August 3 arrest of the middle school student in connection with the two middle school bomb threats came as the result of “a good old-fashioned investigation,” said Police Chief Michael Kehoe.

Officer Domenic Costello, who formerly served the school resource officer at the high school and at the middle school, investigated the cases.

That detective work involved the review of surveillance camera recordings, as well as handwriting analysis, Chief Kehoe said.

No additional arrests are expected in the police investigation of the middle school bomb threats, the police chief said.

The two criminal offenses lodged against the 14-year-old boy represent those charges which police were able to obtain from Danbury Juvenile Court, based upon the evidence that police had developed and provided to the court about the string of bomb threats, he said.

Chief Kehoe said the boy’s arrest should serve as a warning to students that police will investigate bomb threats at the schools.

“We hope [a bomb threat] never happens, but if it does, we will investigate each and every bomb threat thoroughly and completely,” he said.

“These types of criminal acts are very disruptive to the educational process and to many, many people,” he has said.

There were many more bomb threats at the schools this past school year than in previous years.

School Superintendent Janet Robinson said, “The bomb threats were extremely disruptive to the schools…It creates a safety concern.”

Officials were able to determine and apprehend the students who were responsible for bomb threats at both the high school and middle school, she noted.

“[Students] need to understand that someone who did this is receiving consequences for their behavior…There will be consequences — police consequences and school consequences,” she said.

The boy who is accused of making the middle school bomb threats was suspended from classes for ten days last school year, Dr Robinson said. School officials are seeking to have the boy expelled from school, she said. Expulsions may last for up to one year.

Also, the boy whom police charged in June with making the bomb threat at the high school in May has been expelled by school officials, she said.

The school system has increased the number of surveillance cameras in use at the middle school for building security purposes, Dr Robinson said.