Threat empties BEA high school

By Dena Pauling, dpauling@centredaily.com

WINGATE — Bald Eagle Area High School students were evacuated Monday afternoon after a suspicious message — that later turned out to be a hoax — was found written on a boy’s bathroom stall.

“I have a gun in my locker,” the message said, according to Warren Sasserman and Kent Bernier, criminal investigators for the state police at Rockview.

But district staff searched every locker in the school after the message was discovered about 2:40 p.m. and did not find anything except a small pocketknife, which students are prohibited from bringing to school.

“We are going to look through the video and determine who may have been in the bathroom at that time,” Bernier said. Investigators are hoping for students’ cooperation and are asking anyone with information to contact them at 355-7545. During the evacuation, students were directed outside to nearby Alumni Stadium, where they remained until the buses arrived to pick them up at the usual time, Superintendent Dan Fisher said.

The latest incident marks at least the third event at local schools this school year in which classes were disrupted due to a threatening message found in a bathroom.

In late October, the Bellefonte Area High School went into lockdown after a threat of violence was found written on a bathroom wall.

And in April, administrators at the State College Area High School canceled classes districtwide after a message, threatening violence on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, was discovered in a South Building bathroom.