10-year-old spared detention in Warren County’s 9th school threat case

A 10-year-old Franklin boy was released to his parents today while facing a charge of inducing panic at school.

The boy was youngest and latest of nine school threat cases filed in Warren County since the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., but court officials said another case involving a 10-year-old from South Lebanon was to be filed after a threat today.

“They just keep getting younger and younger,” Kirby said before a recess during which he mulled whether to spare the boy a stay in the detention center with older juveniles, some facing weapons and sex charges.

The boy, a fifth-grader at Schenck Elementary school in Franklin, will be on house arrest. His father told Judge Joe Kirby all weapons were removed from the home in anticipation of his release.

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He is accused of making statements on March 5 to three students “that he was going to bring a gun to school, kill everyone and then kill himself,” according to the case filed on Monday in the court in Lebanon.

The school principal investigated the case before contacting the police, according to the charge.

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On March 7, the boy “described being bullied at school, and was having problems dealing with the bullying” during a meeting with the principal, his parents and Detective David Hatfield, the detective said in the charging documents.

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On Monday, Judge Joe Kirby released a 17-year-old girl after 21 days of detention, the fifth case in which he released the child to their parents after a polygraph test.

Kirby ordered the boy considered for a polygraph and assessed, while under 24-hour line-of-site supervision. He has been suspended and faces expulsion, his father told Kirby.

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