GREENFIELD — A 12-year-old boy who threatened a school shooting had no immediate access to weapons, a police investigation found.
Still, the boy remains locked in a juvenile detention center as prosecutors move forward with filing criminal charges of intimidation against him.
The boy was arrested earlier this week after administrators at Greenfield Intermediate School, 204 W. Park Ave., notified school resource officers of a note found in the building that contained a handwritten threat of violence.
The gun he said he had was not found, and a thorough search of his home didn’t turn up any weapons, according to police.
Prosecutor Brent Eaton confirmed his office filed juvenile criminal charges against the boy this week.
The proceedings and court records are closed to the public, but Eaton confirmed the boy is accused of intimidation.
The incident occurred Wednesday, when the note was found by another student, who reported it to a teacher.
“I am shooting up the school today. This is not a joke. Try and find me. I have a gun in my locker,” the note stated, police said.
School resource officers and administrators identified the boy — whose name has not been released because of his age — as the student responsible for the note. He was arrested at school and taken to the Delaware County Juvenile Center in Muncie.
Police searched the boy’s school locker and his home as part of their investigation. No weapons were ever found, officials said.
Prosecutors filed a juvenile delinquency petition in court Thursday against the boy, Eaton said. This document is similar to charging documents filed against an adult.
Adults are subject to intimidation charges when they communicate a threat – “an expression, by words or action, of an intention to … unlawfully injure the person threatened or another person, or damage property.”
Prosecutors must prove those same elements beyond a reasonable doubt in juvenile court, Eaton said. Any sentence he receives would be geared toward rehabilitation rather than punishment, as is required in juvenile proceedings, he added.
The events in Florida have colored the way educators and the public alike respond to potential threats, and that increased sense of anxiety about the potential for school violence was evident when the 12-year-old’s note was found, Olin said.
“This … had a different level of alarm in the community … in light of the Parkland piece,” he said, adding the school had to ensure student safely while remembering it was a young child who wrote the note. “It’s just a fine line on how seriously you take that.”
The boy has not returned to school, and administrators are weighing academic sanctions for the child as police continue the criminal investigation.
Though the boy has no history of making threats and has done “nothing of this level” before, he has had disciplinary issues in the past, Olin added.
“If things are happening repeatedly, we are going to increase the disciplinary action,” Olin said, adding he could not elaborate further.