Bomb threat with time found in Amherst Junior High School bathroom

AMHERST — A threat found scribbled on a girls restroom stall Friday morning caused Amherst Junior High School to be briefly evacuated while police swept the building. Staff found the graffiti about 11 a.m. and alerted police officer Greg Ford, who is assigned to patrol the schools. According to Sgt. Michael Rosebeck, the message read, "We have a bomb" and listed a specific time within the hour. It didn't include any other details nor name any targets, he said. The school was emptied for about 15 minutes, giving police time to search within the building while about 800 sixth, seventh and eighth graders waited outside, said Principal Andrew Gibson. Teachers treated the interruption like a fire drill to prevent panic. The Lorain County Bomb Squad was consulted, but did not help sweep the building, Rosebeck said. No explosives or other contraband were discovered, he said. Police deemed the threat "noncredible." Though it was found in a girls restroom, the threat was too sloppy to get a sense of whether it may have been written by a boy or girl, Rosebeck said. There are no suspects, and no other evidence turned up. "I would view it as more of a prank," Rosebeck said. "But you have to take it seriously, which is why we had the response we did. You can't ever discount something like that." The situation comes on the heels of three bomb threats made at Lorain County Community College, which resulted in the evacuation of its campuses. All three threats were made via the college's online live chat system and later were deemed to be unsubstantiated. After the third threat on March 29, LCCC went to remote classes for several days. Those incidents were in the back of Amherst police officers' minds as they responded Friday to the junior high, Rosebeck said. He speculated that an Amherst student could have heard about the LCCC threats and made a bad decision to write their own. Gibson said he doesn't believe it was a copycat incident. "I think it was a kid being silly, probably not thinking it was a big deal," and at that age they often don't understand the gravity of their choices, he said. With the building cleared, classes at Amherst Junior High resumed and the day went on as normal. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.