Officials file charges for rash of school threats
Four students have been charged in connection with threats that prompted Lancaster High School to close Feb. 23, Fairfield County Prosecutor Kyle Witt said Friday.
The students charged in connection with making telephone threats on Feb. 22 are: Makiya A. Hurley and Bri’tianna Smith, both 15 and each charged with delinquency counts of inducing panic, making false alarms and telecommunications harassment; and Mikquiana Street, 17, and Karma Smith, 13, each charged with delinquency counts of telecommunications harassment.
During a court appearance Friday, Fairfield County Juvenile Court Judge Terre L. Vandervoort ordered them held in the Multi-County Juvenile Detention Center in Lancaster. She also ordered the four to receive behavioral and mental-health counseling while their cases are pending, Witt said.
There also were charges filed this week in Juvenile Court against other students in connection with threats of school violence in other Fairfield County districts.
“The rash of school threats over the past week has been unprecedented,” Witt said. “I want to assure the public and all those affected by these threats of our steadfast commitment to ensuring a safe learning environment for our students, and that we will have zero tolerance when it comes to any threat of violence in our schools.”
According to court documents:
In Lancaster, Sherman Junior High School student Donald A. Hedrick III, 14, has been charged with delinquency counts of disorderly conduct and menacing after allegedly making a threat at school Feb. 15.
Pickerington Central High School students Travis W. Dixon and Lucas A. Eisnnicher, both 16, have each been charged with delinquency counts of falsification, obstructing official business and disorderly conduct related to causing alarm at the high school around Feb. 18-19. Dixon allegedly posted a video to Snapchat and Eisnnicher allegedly posted a photograph to Twitter showing each handling a firearm.
Pickerington North High School student Eloy S. Martinez, 15, has been charged with delinquency counts of inducing panic, disorderly conduct, possessing criminal tools, falsification and obstructing official business after he allegedly was found with a .22-caliber bullet at the school Feb. 20.
Noah D. McLendon, 12, a student at the Pickerington district’s Ridgeview Junior High School, has been charged with a single delinquency count of inducing panic and two delinquency counts of aggravated menacing related to an alleged threat Feb. 22.
Pickerington Central High School student Sadique T. Nellum, 16, has been charged with delinquency counts of inducing panic, making false alarms and disorderly conduct related to causing alarm at the high school Feb. 23. He allegedly posted on Snapchat a video of himself handling multiple firearms and then a photograph of himself with his eyes x’ed out in red and captioned “Love yall watch your back in these schools no joke plz.”
Liberty Union High School student Richard T. Reed. 17, has been charged with two delinquency counts of illegal conveyance or possession of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance and a count of inducing panic at his school Feb. 26.
Samuel T. Harper, 16, has been charged with a delinquency count of inducing panic Feb. 22 after allegedly making a threat regarding the Bloom-Carroll school district.