Bomb scare charge pending

COEUR d'ALENE - A criminal charge is being sought against a 16-year-old Lake City High School student in connection with a Sept. 26 bomb threat made at the school.

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department has petitioned the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office asking that the male student be charged with making a false bomb report. The student's name will not be released by police because he is a minor.

"Not only do I applaud the efforts of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department in the investigation, but I support their tough stance because we can't tolerate threats to the safety of our students," said Coeur d'Alene School District Superintendent Hazel Bauman. "Although this was a false threat, it took so much time and effort away from not only education, but it compromised the safety of the rest of the community by taking the police and bomb experts away from true public safety issues."

Coeur d'Alene School Resource Officer Andy Sterling completed the investigation, reported Coeur d'Alene Police Sgt. Christie Wood.

Sterling is stationed at Lake City. School Resource Officers are dually employed by the city police department and the school district, and are posted at the district's high schools and most of its middle schools.

"A big thank you to the Coeur d'Alene Police Department for our ongoing relationship. This is a good example of how this has benefited us and the larger community," Bauman said.

School officials contacted police before noon on the day of the incident, after a note was found on school grounds warning that a bomb would explode at the high school.

"Officer Sterling received information from the suspect's friends that he (the suspect) left the note so he could get out of going to math class," Wood wrote in a press release.

In addition to questioning students, Sterling reviewed hours of surveillance video recordings.

Making an intentionally false report that an explosive device has been placed or hidden in a public or private place is a felony in Idaho with a possible sentence of up to five years in prison.

Wood said the Coeur d'Alene Police Department has asked the county prosecutor's office to seek restitution for police department expenses related to the response and evacuation of students. The costs have not yet been determined.

"There was a large number of personnel there," Wood said.

Coeur d'Alene police officers received support from Idaho State Police, members of the federal Transportation Security Administration's regional K-9 team and Spokane County Sheriff's Department.

Those agencies could seek restitution as well, Wood said.