Glover Student Expelled For Threatening Teachers

Sat., May 2, 1998

Jeanette White The Associated Press Contributed T Staff writer

A 14-year-old Glover Middle School student was expelled Thursday after she wrote graffiti threatening the lives of six teachers, school officials said.

A custodian found the lists scrawled on the walls of two bathrooms Monday night, said Spokane District 81 spokeswoman Terren Roloff. “She was angry at at least one of the teachers,” Roloff said.

The girl has been expelled until the end of the school year, but is still scheduled to advance to high school next fall, educators said.

“It took a little while for them to find out whose handwriting it matched,” Roloff said.

Educators took the list seriously in light of recent shootings of teachers and students in other parts of the country.

They’re recommending prosecutors charge her with third-degree malicious mischief, Roloff said.

“There’s a heightened awareness,” said District 81 security chief Joe Madsen. “We’re listening probably more closely than we have in the past.”

The teachers listed in the graffiti were notified Tuesday.

Another Washington middle school student was charged Friday with two counts of felony harassment and one count of misdemeanor harassment for threatening to shoot classmates and adults last month.

The 12-year-old boy at Park Middle School in Kennewick was accused of bringing bullets to school and possessing a handwritten note containing the phrase “2 kill,” followed by the names of several adults and students.

The sixth-grader was being held in juvenile jail pending a detention hearing Monday. The boy told police he had only been joking about shooting people, court documents said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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