Fulton teens arrested for false bomb threat to HS

By KATHERINE CUMMINS
The Fulton Sun

At 2:40 p.m., the Fulton Police Department received a call from the Callaway County Emergency Operations Center passing on a possible bomb threat from a third party.

"It was kind of convoluted. The threat was made to a third party that had nothing to do with the school," said Fulton Police Chief Steve Myers. "They just picked a phone number out of the blue and during the course of their conversation said they wanted to blow up the school.

"They gave no time frame and they were laughing in the background, but she took it seriously and, of course, so did we."

According to an FPD press release, "because of the text and nature of the call and how the call was received it was determined not to evacuate the building."

"We take any call like this seriously, but it was pretty obvious very early that this was a false call," Myers said. "The call wasn't even made to the school or anyone connected to the school."

Kathy Wright, director of community relations for Fulton Public Schools, confirmed the school did not evacuate because "by the time we were notified, it was 10 or 15 minutes before school let out anyway."

She said principal Teri Arms did record a School Reach message regarding the incident that was scheduled to go out to FHS parents Wednesday night.

Myers said the investigation soon led police to identify two juvenile males - one a Fulton high school student, the other an FHS dropout - as the individuals responsible for the phone call.

"We were able to arrest the two juveniles and they were turned over to the juvenile authorities," he said. "(The threat) was handled perfectly. We had no issues at all."

The pair face charges of a class D felony of making a false bomb threat.