Teen Arrested For Threatening to Blow-Up South Salem High

There is no indication that the teen had any plans in place to commit the act police said.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - Salem police arrested a 15-year-old boy Tuesday for threatening to blow up South Salem High School. The teen is a student at the school and left a note on a wall on Monday afternoon threatening that people would die at the school on November 1st.

He said that he was just capitalizing on the publicity centering around a threat that appeared on a bathroom wall last week, but there is no indication he was involved in that threat. The teen said he was just hoping to get some extra days off of school. Instead he was arrested on charges of Disorderly Conduct and was transported to the Juvenile Detention Facility.

He could also face disciplinary action from the school as well.

All too often we end up investigating incidents where people try to capitalize on previous incidents for their own selfish reasons. In this case, as in most, that was a bad idea that landed the suspect at the Juvenile Department and in trouble with the schools as well.

The Salem Police Department and the Salem Keizer Schools take all threats seriously and take appropriate security measures to protect the students and the community.

In this particular case, the costs of extra security measures taken by the school district from the time the threat was discovered Monday afternoon until the time of arrest on Tuesday morning well exceeded $300.

That does not count the staff time involved in dealing with the safety issues related to the incident and the costs associated with the investigation of the crime.

All in all, this incident that began as a way to try to get out of school for a couple of days has cost the taxpayers a considerable amount of time and money.