Havre student arrested for writing threatening letter to middle school

Annette Hayden Havre Daily News [email protected]

A 13-year-old juvenile male remained in the Blaine County Detention Facility Monday after admitting to writing a threatening letter found at Havre Middle School on Friday. “School officials contact the Havre Police Department at 2:24 p.m. Friday, May 4,” said Police Lt. Russ Ostwalt. “They had located a threatening letter at the school. Police went to the school and met with their officials. After assisting the school in determining who wrote the note, a suspect was determined. School officials called the juvenile and his parents and met with them. The juvenile admitted to writing the note.” Police then interviewed the suspect Friday evening, after which the juvenile was arrested and transported to Blaine County Detention facility. The boy was charged with “assault by coercion, intimidation or threat.” “The note was found in a bathroom at Havre Middle School and was delivered to the counseling department by some students,” said School Superintendent Kirk Miller. “Immediately, our emergency management process went into effect. We utilized the police department along with a writing analysis specialist and we went through writing samples available at the school. We worked with staff to determine potential suspects and in fact it was the analysis of the writing sample, in combination with clear discussion about potential students, that led to the school calling the parEnts in and the student confessing to having written the note.” The confession came about 4 hours after the note was discovered, according to Miller, who said the threats within the note were considered “level one.” Meaning the threat was general and not descriptive enough to raise an evacuation concern nor did it name anyone who was in specific harm. “The environment was safe the entire time,” Miller said. “The threats were, frankly, copy cat to what is going on all over the state right now. The communication network at the middle school kept our staff informed throught the afternoon, and later in evening the communication network kept district officials informed. The cooperation from the police department was excellent.” The juvenile appread in Hill County District Court Monday afternoon via video-conference from the Blain County courthouse. The purpose of the closed detention hearing was to find if their was probably cause to further detain the boy. Hill County Attorney Cyndee Peterson was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.