Pennsylvania School District Raises Security at Facility Based on Threats

Sept. 27, 2005
Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School responds to threats of 'genocide' on bathroom walls

LEHMAN TWP. - Additional security measures have been oyt in place at the Lake Lehman Junior/Senior High School in response to a message recently written on a bathroom wall that referred to genocide on today's date, said Superintendent Michael Healey.

Healey said the school is limiting access to the two main doors and doors where buses drop off students in the back. In addition, the school installed several additional video cameras, and there will be a visible police presence from state and local police.

The precautions come in response to a message that was written on a junior high girl's lavatory wall between Sept. 9 and Sept. 12 that said genocide, 9/27/05 and goodbye. The message prompted Healey to lock down the junior high section of the building for several hours on Sept. 12, the day the message was reported to school officials.

Lehman Township police and the school have been investigating the incident since then.

A student had been identified as a suspect but no charges had been filed as of Friday, Healey said.

"We have not been able to definitively assign responsibility to any one individual," he said. "We're still taking this seriously and are continuing to investigate, but at some point we've run into a dead end. What we've been investigating, believing it to be truth, ended up being rumor."

(c) 2005 Associated Press