Kevin Grasha

kgrasha@enquirer.com

School threats in Warren County were a near-daily occurrence from the end of April until the second week of May.

On April 27, a bomb threat was written on a bathroom wall at Springobro High School. The school was evacuated and remained closed the next day.

Two school days later, a written bomb threat was found in a girl’s bathroom at Lebanon High School. It said, “a bomb (was going) to go off at” 1 p.m., according to police records obtained by The Enquirer.

The high school was evacuated that day, May 2, as well as the next two days because of a shooting threat and then another bomb threat. The shooting threat was written on a stall in a different girl’s bathroom, according to police records.

By May 11, there had been multiple threats involving four Warren County schools. At least nine students, ranging in age from 12 to 18, face criminal charges in the incidents. The 18-year-old, Andrew Stadler, accused of writing the threat in the Springboro case, has been charged as an adult in Warren County Common Pleas Court and faces a possible prison sentence.

Caught up in what appears to be a crackdown on threats was a 17-year-old Lebanon High School junior, whose ill-timed Twitter posts about Nerf toy gun battles and then a school shooting led to criminal charges.

The 17-year-old’s attorney, Charles M. Rittgers, said the case is different than the others.

“While (he) certainly regrets and profusely apologizes for his actions,” Rittgers said in court documents, “he clearly indicated in his tweet he was being sarcastic.”

The 17-year-old's Twitter posts, made April 14 and 15, didn’t lead to evacuations or school closures. He eventually was expelled from the school for the year. The Enquirer is not naming him because he is a juvenile.

In the first post, according to court documents, he wrote: “Great idea for next (year’s) Nerf war! Instead of arguing over rules, let’s just use real guns! Ha ha, just joking. I’ll have shot up the school by then.”

Naked nerf war time again at Lakota schools

On April 15, he wrote, according to court documents: “Haven’t been called to the office yet lmao…really just need to make it to lunch to follow through with the plan.”

Rittgers noted that including the acronym “lmao” in the tweet, which refers to laughing, showed that his client was being sarcastic. Nerf wars involve teams of people who shoot foam missiles at each other. The 17-year-old and his friends would set up brackets, Rittgers said.

“Unlike most of the other cases,” Rittgers said in the documents, “there was not an evacuation, was no bomb sweep, no third-party companies needed for ventilation searches…and no disruption of academic or school activities.”

The 17-year-old was arraigned May 2 in juvenile court – the same day as the first evacuation of Lebanon High School. A few days later, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, after prosecutors said they were considering upgrading the charge to a felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in Warren County juvenile court.

Warren County Prosecutor Dave Fornshell could not be reached for comment.

The 17-year-old, like the others charged in juvenile court, is still being held without bond at a Warren County juvenile facility. Court documents say he missed his sister’s graduation and will lose college credits he was working on because he has been incarcerated and couldn’t take his final exam. The 18-year-old facing adult charges, Stadler, has been released from custody while his case is pending, according to court records.

Rittgers has asked the judge to place his client on probation and order him to work with local schools “through speeches and appearances, discussing with students the implications and importance of words, even when (they are) mere jokes.”