By Erin Fuchs
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
DALTON, Ga. — Two teens were arrested Thursday on charges of making bomb threats at Northwest High School, but not for the four bomb threats in the past week.
The two students, a 14-year-old boy and Heather Lynn Bowers, 17, were charged with new threats made Thursday.
This time the school’s 1,700 students were not evacuated, but the four previous threats emptied the school and have students, faculty and authorities on edge.
The hoaxes, still under investigation, began Feb. 27 and have wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars and 14 hours of class time, officials said.
“We’ve put in a major effort trying to thwart these false alarms,” Sheriff’s Maj. John Gibson said.
The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department has notified the FBI of the threats and has held students after school for questioning, he said.
The boy was charged with making a false public alarm, and Miss Bowers was charged with criminal attempt at false public alarm. Both charges are felonies, carrying up to five years in prison, and Georgia law allows her to be charged as an adult.
Thursday’s threats were written on a student’s desk and on a piece of paper; the earlier threats were scrawled in a student restroom. Neither student arrested has been connected to the restroom threats.
For now, Maj. Gibson said sheriff’s officers will continue monitoring student restrooms.
Students must sign in before using the restroom, and on their way inside smile at a surveillance camera. Teachers stand by the door and check the bathroom for threats after the student is finished, Maj. Gibson said.
Travis Fauscett, a senior, said he stopped going to the restroom at school because it’s “an inconvenience.” He said he’s falling behind in his British literature class because of all the lost class time from the evacuations.
Maj. Gibson said he sympathized with the students, whom he described as mostly “good kids.”
Still, he said, “We’re not backing down from our level of investigation.”
Copyright 2008 Chattanooga Times Free Press