WALES — Police have charged a 14-year-old girl in conection with a false bomb threat Monday at Oak Hill Middle School, while a similar threat at Oak Hill High School remains under investigation.
Sabattus Police Chief Tony Ward said the girl, who lives in Wales and is in eighth grade at the middle school, was charged Wednesday with filing a false public report or alarm, a Class D misdemeanor.
The girl allegedly wrote the word “bomb” Monday afternoon on a mirror in a bathroom at the middle school, causing the school to be evacuated so the Maine State Police could search it with an explosive-sniffing dog.
Tuesday morning, a similarly written threat was reported at Oak Hill High School in Wales. Lt. Glenn Holt of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department said the threat was reported at 9:14 a.m., and classes resumed about 12:30 p.m. after the building was searched. No one has been charged in connection with that case, police said.
It was the third time a Regional School Unit 4 building was evacuated this month to investigate a bomb threat. A similar incident occurred April 2 at Oak Hill High School.
Ward said the threat at the middle school does not appear to be connected to the others, but his department is assisting the Androscoggin sheriff’s investigation into the incidents at the high school.
Holt said it’s not unusual for a school or school district to experience a spate of bomb hoaxes.
“Once they get started, they have a tendency not to stop until you find the person that is doing it, or the person gets scared enough that they stop,” he said.
He said anyone involved in the hoaxes at the high school would be charged with terrorizing, a Class C crime, and face disciplinary action from the school.
Susan McMillan — 621-5645
smcmillan@mainetoday.com
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