As they prepared for a news conference warning students and parents of the ramifications of threatening a school, Oakland County’s prosecutor and sheriff were told of brand-new threats at Walled Lake schools.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said his office now has investigations open for 10 school buildings — in the Rochester, Oxford and Walled Lake districts — threatened just this week.
County leaders said anyone caught making such threats, whether e-mailed or scrawled on a bathroom wall, will be held accountable with a criminal record and time spent in Children’s Village, Oakland County Jail or even prison, as well as hefty fines. “We are going to find these kids,” County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “We will catch them, and they will find out we’re serious.”
The threats have picked up since the Monday shooting in Blacksburg, Va.
“It appears the tragic events at Virginia Tech have sparked a spate of new school threats,” Prosecutor David Gorcyca said. “Bomb threats and threats of terrorism are not funny. They are not hoaxes. They are not jokes. They are crimes.”
Before the massacre that left 33 dead Monday, sheriff ’s officials already were piling on overtime hours and bringing in more than a dozen bomb-sniffing dogs to check four Rochester Hills schools after a Sunday night e-mail threat, Bouchard said.
The tragedy only added to the problems of threats, as a middle school in Oxford was threatened Tuesday, two Walled Lake high schools were threatened Wednesday and three more threats hit the Walled Lake district Thursday.
The county’s two top cops warned students and their parents that anyone caught making such threats would end up with a criminal record and hefty fines to pay for the time and resources used to ensure the threats did not turn into real tragedies.
“You will be charged with a four- or 20-year felony, and there will be no plea bargains,” Gorcyca said, promising that criminal records will haunt teenagers as they try to get jobs, join the military or seek college enrollment.
Additionally, the pair said parents should be on alert, because any student caught making a threat that closes a school will be responsible for paying thousands of dollars in restitution, which the parents could have to help pay.
Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie Markavitch said it can cost $200,000 to $600,000 to close an entire district and add security measures.
“These are real dollars,” said Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh. “These costs are going to be passed on to those convicted of these crimes.”
Furthermore, Narsh said sending numerous officers to ensure school safety for a prank diverts resources from crime prevention and traffic patrols, which could lead to tragedy.
Markavitch said one of the costs would be a forfeited education: Anyone found making such a threat likely will be expelled, or at least suspended.
“One’s entire school career could be impacted,” Markavitch said.
Oakland County Chief Circuit Judge Wendy Potts said those charged with making bomb threats or other terrorist threats will be treated seriously by the county’s judges, who are aware of the anxieties felt by the public.
“These cases will be tried very expeditiously and justice will be served,” Potts said. “We understand how the public feels about this — how they fear it and fear for their children. Judges are not viewing this as a prank.”
Deborah Goltz, a Commerce Township parent of a Walled Lake Central High School sophomore, favors tough punishment for whoever left a threat at her son’s school.
“As a parent, I felt bad sending him to school,” Goltz said. “These kids taking a tragedy and making a mockery of it is sad. I think they will do anything to get out of school.
“They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It’s not a joke. Maybe that will stop it.”
With a reward of $2,000 offered for information on the threats, Patterson said he expects the copycat threats to end when someone is dragged before a judge wearing jail garb and shackled.
“I don’t know what these young boys and girls are thinking,” Patterson said, saying the cost is additionally frustrating as schools throughout Oakland County “are scrapped for cash” due to the state’s sinking economy.
Gorcyca said that the rash of bomb threats following the slaughter at Columbine High School in 1999 — eight years ago today — ended as soon as someone was criminally charged.
Beyond the cost and annoyance of a closed school, Narsh said such threats take away from community’s image. “It taints the schools’ reputation and the good name of the community,” Narsh said. “It’s not fair.”
