COLUMBUS, Ohio – There will continue to be heightened police presence at Westerville South High School, even though school officials say police arrested a suspect in a graffiti threat last week.
Police notified school officials at approximately 6:40 a.m. Monday that they had arrested someone suspected of suspected of scrawling the threat in a restroom in the school’s science wing on Sept. 8, principal Steve Andersson said in a statement on the district’s website.
“We will continue with our normal school schedule today and, in an effort to reassure students of their safety, maintain an increased police presence in our school throughout the week,” Andersson wrote.
The graffiti threatened a shooting at the school today but Andersson wrote “analysis of this threat leads us to believe that it has low credibility and is more of a hoax.”
He wrote that he hoped news of the arrest would encourage parents to send their children to school today but a district official says about one-third of the school’s 1,521 students were reported absent.
The school listed 566 absences while 30 to 50 are reported on a typical day, said Greg Viebranz district executive director of communications and technology.