The boy is one of two 10-year-olds among more than 10 Warren County schoolchildren charged with making empty threats against their school or church in the weeks following the deadly school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
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School officials and police determined the threats were in response to bullying.
On Wednesday, the boy admitted to inducing panic by telling three students “that he was going to bring a gun to school, kill everyone and then kill himself,” according to court records.
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Electronic monitoring was canceled, but the boy was to follow house-arrest rules set by his probation officer.
Judge Joe Kirby also ordered the boy to continue to have no contact with other students involved, but left it up to school officials to decide whether to allow him back in school.
“It is the order of the Court that the defendant have no association or contact with or enter onto the property or into the buildings of Franklin City Schools unless directed otherwise by school officials. The Court will defer to the school on said issue,” Kirby said in a filing in Warren County Juvenile Court.
Unlike some of the children in cases filed following the deadly shooting on Feb. 14, the boy was never detained.
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No polygraph was administered in his case, as had been in others, due to his young age.
Today Franklin Superintendent Michael Sander said the district will comply with the court orders and will also work with the parents. As of 10 a.m. today, Sander said the district had not met with the boy’s parents about re-entering school.
Sander said some options available include home instruction or if the issue is with another student, placed in different classrooms with different lunch and recess times.
For older students, it could be assigning them specific routes to take in the building during class changes, lunch, etc. during the school day. If this is not followed, they will be disciplined for insubordination.
The district also has the option to place a high school student in the Warren County Alternative School.
“We’ll work with the parents because we want the student to be comfortable and the school to be safe,” Sander said.
