PEPPER PIKE -- At least two Orange High School students will be disciplined for their suspected involvement in a series of bomb threats. The Orange School District made the announcement Thursday after consulting with the FBI and local police.

In a statement released on its website, the school district said it has enough information and evidence to take disciplinary action against the students. District spokesman Lou DeVincentis told WKYC the discipline could include expulsion.

The statement from Orange High School principal Dr. Paul Lucas indicated that the school's standards of initiating discipline are not the same as those of police, and that while the school district's investigation is wrapping up, the law enforcement investigation would continue.

"I have absolute confidence that the law enforcement officials are proceeding appropriately given the complexity of the circumstances," Lucas said. "Upon conclusion of my investigation, the students determined to be involved in these incidents will be disciplined appropriately."

In the statement released to the public on its website, the Orange School District also thanked the community for its patience since the first of the bomb threats closed Orange High School in early November.

Orange High School was shut down for three days after the first series of email threats were received. After it reopened, threats continued to come in, some of them threatening violence and destruction in various ways.

The investigation was complicated by the fact that whoever was emailing the threats used a sophisticated method to mask the origin of the emails.

On December 6 local police and the FBI raided the homes of two students and seized computers and other materials. The Orange School District would not say if the students being discipined are those whose homes were raided, but indicated they were relying on all the evidence gathered during the investigation.

 

WKYC-TV