Springboro school false bomb threat case dismissed

Student, 12, found incompetent to stand trial.

A judge dismissed LEBANON — a juvenile court case Monday morning against a 12-year-old special education student at Springboro Junior High School charged with making a false bomb threat at the school in January.

This stems from a Jan. 13 incident reported on for the first time Monday.

A 12-year-old charged in a Feb. 2 incident at the junior high, however, remains on house arrest.

These two cases and incidents sparking evacuation of South Lebanon Elementary School on consecutive days this year follow a series last yearatschoolsinSpringboro, Lebanon and Waynesville.

Judge J0e Kirby dismissed the January case on Monday after prosecutors and defense agreed to accept the finding of a competency report completed on Feb. 21.

“Neither party submits additional evidence,” Kirby said in a ruling.

“The child is presently incapable of understanding the nature and objective of proceedings.”

Kirby also ended GPS monitoring under which the boy had been allowed to be released from detention on house arrest since Jan. 17, four days after he was ordered to be held in the detention center.

The boywas held in detention on amaking false alarms charge filed after he told his special education teacher he “had a bomb in his bag and threw the bag on the floor. This was overheard by another student and circulated to other teachers,” according to court records.

After Monday’s ruling, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said the boy could not be prosecuted under Ohio law, once he was deemed incompetent to stand trial.

“That’s not information that lawenforcementwould be able to have at the time charges are filed,” Fornshell added in a text message.

The boy charged in the case stemming fromthe Feb. 2 bomb threat at Springboro Junior High is scheduled to return to juvenile court on Wednesday.