Student, 15, Is A Suspect In Two Bomb Threats

LOWER POTTSGROVE — Police said yesterday that they plan to charge a 15-year-old male freshman with making two bomb threats at Pottsgrove High last week, forcing the school's evacuation.

The boy is also considered a suspect in a bomb threat that prompted the Pottsgrove superintendent to close five district schools on Tuesday, Police Chief Ray Bechtel of Lower Pottsgrove Township said.

The suspect, identified to authorities by a schoolmate, was released to his parents last night, Bechtel said. Charges could be filed today after the police meet with someone from the Montgomery County district attorney's juvenile division.

Police did not release the suspect's name, but District Superintendent Sharon Nalbone Richardson said the boy confessed to the two threats, one scrawled on a desk, the other included in a note, in front of his parents yesterday.

On Tuesday, a Burger King employee found a note placed on the restaurant's door. The note read: "Bomb in all Pottsgrove schools." Upper Pottsgrove police are investigating whether there is any connection.

Results of lab analysis of the handwriting and fingerprints on the Burger King note, Police Chief Charles Madonna said, are due back from the state police today.

Yesterday, the boy denied writing the Burger King note and offered no explanation for last week's threats, Bechtel said.

School administrators, meanwhile, held an assembly to warn of possible sanctions, including cancellation of the prom or school trips, if the threats do not stop."As the day unfolded," principal Joyce Wishart said, "many students came forward with information to help us with this."

Later, another bomb threat prompted the evacuation of Lower Pottsgrove Elementary, Bechtel said. A student had found the word bomb written on a wall in a girls' bathroom.

Kathryn Masterson's e-mail is kamasterson@phillynews.com.