2 Grove City Girls Charged With ‘Terroristic Threats’
By Karen Roebuck
Two Grove City girls were charged Wednesday with making terroristic threats for putting dozens of high school classmates and teachers on a “murder list,” according to school district and Mercer County officials.
The girls, ages 15 and 17, whom authorities are not identifying because they are charged as juveniles, were suspended from Grove City Area High School Friday after a girl whose name was on the list of 48 or 49 people reported it to the principal, said school Superintendent Robert Post.
“It’s just a list of names with the title at the top — ‘Murder List,’ ” Post said. The two gave it to the principal immediately, he said.
“The girls have been cooperative. Their parents have been cooperative. We’ve determined that neither of the girls had any intent to harm anybody nor did they have the means to do so,” Post said. “I know they’re sorry for what they’ve done.”
He said he did not know why the two created the list, but neither has had discipline problems in the district.
Mercer County District Attorney Robert Kochems said if convicted, the girls face detention up to age 21 and a $10,000 fine. He declined to discuss the case.
High school Principal Joe Skibinski is to meet with the girls today to decide whether to extend the three-day suspension up to 10 days or allow them to return to classes, Post said. The school board will hold a hearing to determine whether to further discipline or expel the girls, Post said.
The high school does not have a Parent-Teacher Organization, but Kelly Owrey, president of the elementary school’s PTO, said district officials generally respond quickly and appropriately to issues, and she trusts whatever decisions they make in this case.
“We had some bomb threats a few years ago and the school system installed security cameras. It’s the kind of community where people are lulled into thinking nothing like that could ever happen here,” she said.
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