Students to pay stiff price for bomb threat

Today's New Haven Register article "5 Students arrested in West Haven bomb threat" indicate that the West Haven Police Department and the Board of Education are going to send a clear message to students in West Haven: "Bomb threats and other threats of violence will not be tolerated".

5 male freshmen students were arrested yesterday for the Tuesday "copy cat" bomb threat that was phoned in:

One of the teenagers, who police identified as the caller, was charged with threatening, falsely reporting an incident and conspiracy to commit threatening, all in the first degree.

The other four teenagers were each charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit threatening. All were referred to juvenile court authorities.

Each of the charges are Class D felonies that carry a prison term of one to five years and up to a $5,000 fine.

Police also are drafting arrest warrants for nine students and one former student, ranging from age 16 to 18, for allegedly conspiring to affix a bomb threat on one of the school’s outside doors [on Monday]. Addressed to Stancil, it consisted of a schematic drawing of the school’s ground level that had been ripped from the parent-teacher handbook and indicated where the bombs allegedly would go off via handwritten X’s in certain school areas.

Ron Stancil, principal of the West Haven High School, is in the process of drawing up paperwork to most likely expel the 14 students. Assistant Superintendent of Schools Neil C. Cavallaro indicated that the school district would likely act quickly to expel the students, but would take into consideration their records, and whether or not some students are "more guilty than others" (what does THAT mean?). Hopefully they are taking into mind that students are innocent until proven guilty.

I've gone back and forth in my mind about how I feel about this - previous reports have indicated that some (if not most) of these students were not trouble makers, and were relatively good students. Unfortunately, though, in this day and age, threats of violence cannot be ignored. When maps of the school with bomb locations are distributed, and then others copy the actions of the first bomb scare threateners, action must be swift and clear, even if the intention was only for a prank. Whether the end result will be a scare tactic, or if these students will actually be expelled, it certainly has people talking to their children about the senselessness of bomb scares.