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Deputies: New Port Richey teen wrote bomb threat on River Ridge High bathroom stall

 
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Published Aug. 23, 2018

NEW PORT RICHEY — A 17-year-old River Ridge High School student was arrested Wednesday after deputies said she wrote a bomb threat on a bathroom door.

The student was arrested on charges of threatening to throw, place or discharge a destructive device and written threats to kill or do bodily harm. According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, four such threats appeared around the school in the first week of classes, but as of Thursday afternoon the student was charged in connection with only one.

Pasco County Sheriff's deputies investigated after students saw the phrase "Bombs will be placed on campus tonight" scrawled on a stall door in a restroom off the school's cafeteria. Deputies said security footage showed the student going into the bathroom around the time the message was written.

She admitted in multiple interviews to writing the message, deputies said. She was taken to a juvenile detention center.

Sheriff Chris Nocco said there is "nothing to show" the student had the means to follow through on the threat. But investigators couldn't confirm that until after the arrest, he said, and such threats warrant a serious response. "The moment you don't take it that seriously is the moment something does happen," he said.