Bomb scare will lead to charges

A Michigan State Police officer and a trained bomb detecting dog check the outside of the Hamtramck High School Community Center.

 

By Charles Sercombe
The two teens who allegedly called in a fake bomb threat last week at Hamtramck High School are facing some serious criminal charges.
The only good news for the teens, who are now in a juvenile detention facility, is that they are still only to be charged as minors. They are both males, one 15 and the other 13 years old.
Hamtramck Police Chief Anne Moise said the teens will be charged with the following crimes:

o False report or threat of Bomb/Harmful Device, which is a felony and has a maximum penalty of four years in detention, and/or a $2,000 fine.
o Threat to commit act of violence against a school, employees or students, which is a misdemeanor with a one-year detention, and/or a $1,000 fine.
o Malicious Use of Telecommunications device, which is another misdemeanor conviction with six months in detention, and/or $1,000 fine.

Their parents are not being ticketed with parental responsibility violations.
The bomb scare caused the high school, the community center, Horizon High School and the Early Childhood Elementary School to be evacuated and closed for the day.
Hamtramck police also had to call in the Michigan State Police bomb squad to assist in searching the high school and outside perimeter. No bomb was found.
The situation also caused Caniff to be closed off from McDougall to Gallagher, which caused further traffic congestion on top of the Caniff rebuild happening from the I-75 service drive to Jos. Campau.
The school district does experience fake bomb threats every once-and-awhile – usually in the spring, during good weather.
The bomb threat also prompted Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to issue a statement on students who make threats of violence.
“Often, they make the threat thinking that it is not a big deal as long as they did not plan to actually carry it out. Michigan law, however, makes it a crime to communicate a threat, even if the person making the threat did not have the intent or the capability of actually carrying it out.
“When a threat is made, we cannot immediately know whether the threat is a serious threat, or whether the threat is meant to be a so-called prank,” Worthy said.
She added:
“My office takes these cases extremely seriously, not only because of the need to keep your child and the community safe, but also because of the disruption of the school environment and the significant expenditure of resources by the school and by law enforcement that even a ‘prank’ threat causes.”
Worthy urged parents to talk to their children about the seriousness of making threats.
Posted May 7, 2021

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