School closed after threats
By DENISE SMITH AMOS
ENQUIRER
School closed after threats
SHARONVILLE - Nearly 430 Princeton High students stayed home Friday, and police and security officers surrounded the school and patrolled its halls after numerous students got text messages about a possible shooting at the school.
Sharonville police are investigating whether a student who was suspended last week for a racist rant in the school courtyard is linked to the threats.
The 16-year-old junior, whom officials wouldn't identify, stood on a table and listed minorities that he said he hates, students who heard him said. He was immediately suspended pending an expulsion hearing.
The boy has on occasion claimed to be a Nazi and the "12th cousin of Hitler," students who know him said.
"What he is is a Nazi wannabe,' said Superintendent Aaron Mackey. "He really doesn't have a following."
The text messages haven't been traced to him, police said.
Princeton Principal Ray Spicher said the boy on Friday was sent to live with relatives in Indiana. "We think the threat is out of the area," Mackey said. "As long as everybody keeps a cool head on, we should be fine."
Some students at Princeton, a school that touts its diversity, say they're unsure whether the threat is over.
The school has no noticeable racial problems, several students said, but a few students who hung around the boy in the past stood by his locker Friday morning, saying "boom" and "bang" as some students passed, said Chris Webster, a 17-year-old senior who lives in Sycamore Township.
Webster said he got a text message that said, "I've got friends. They'll kill you."
"I thought they meant business," Webster said, adding that he went to school anyway because he wants to maintain his grades.
Spicher said he thinks the text messages were not from one single source and were the result of incorrect rumors that the suspended student was coming back to school. Some messages mentioned blacks as a target.
Some students still had the messages on their cell phones Friday afternoon. One message read, "U heard bout da shootin dats goin down tomorrow at school. Pass 2 all Princeton students."
Princeton High's lockdown continued through the day.
Extra police and security were also assigned to the football game Friday night between Princeton and Hamilton.
Princeton's student body is 58 percent African-American and 35 percent white, he said, with other minorities making up 7 percent.
Found on: enquirer.com
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