Jeffrey Alderton
KEYSER, W.Va. — Written bomb threats at the Keyser Primary-Middle School disrupted classes again Wednesday, marking the third consecutive day classes were disrupted there.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Mineral County Schools Superintendent Skip Hackworth said some students of the school have been identified as suspects in the threats.
However, he declined to specify the number of students involved or disclose the grades of the students.
“We have been fortunate to be able to identify the students who are believed to be responsible for the threats. We are referring the matter to the prosecutor’s office for prosecution and in addition to judicial proceedings, the students will be dealt with by the student code of conduct for further action,” said Hackworth.
All three days the school was evacuated after each threat. No explosive devices were found when the school was searched by police.
All the threats were made in notes discovered all three days inside the school, Hackworth said.
Following Wednesday’s threat, prekindergarten to fifth-grade students were moved to the Mineral County Technical Center and students in grades six through eight were relocated to Keyser High School.
Hackworth said investigators — including West Virginia State Police, the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office and Keyser City Police — have been receiving information all week about the threats from other students.
Mineral County Prosecuting Attorney Jay Courier said juvenile petitions will be filed to seek charges against the students allegedly involved in the threats.
“We will take it through the system and do as much as we can to stop this from happening any more,” said Courrier.
The prosecutor said the charges would be pursued due in part to the “inconvenience and disruptions of the school system and to treat this as seriously as we can as a deterrent effect.”
Under West Virginia law, penalty for conviction of the misdemeanor offense of falsely reporting an emergency incident is punishable by a fine of up to $500 and a jail term of up to six months, according to Mineral County Magistrate David Harman.
Contact Jeffrey Alderton at Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.
