Trish Bennett, Editor
ASHVILLE – A 14-year-old student is being charged with criminal mischief after reportedly writing a threatening message in a bathroom Wednesday at Teays Valley East Middle School.
According to Detective Jeff George, Ashville Police Department, the accused male student was the person who reported finding the message to a teacher shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The message stated, “This place will be smithereens when I’m through,” George said. It was written in marker on a handicap bathroom rail.
Evidence at the scene pointed to the reporting student as the culprit, George said, and he later admitted to the crime.
Ordinarily anyone accused of writing a threatening message is charged with inducing panic, but since the suspect was identified so quickly, the school was not disrupted and multiple law enforcement agencies did not become involved. Due to those factors, George said, Ashville Police opted to pursue a lesser charge of criminal mischief in this case.
According to Julie DeLisio, communications director for Teays Valley Local Schools, the student also faces disciplinary action according to the district’s policy. She said students always face some type of severe consequence for such actions with a minimum of suspension and a maximum of up to one year expulsion and/or felony charges.
This article originally appeared on The Pickaway News Journal
