Threat against Stevenson High a 'prank'

An Internet post threatening a Columbine-style attack against Adlai E. Stevenson High School was a prank created by a boy living in the far Northwest suburbs, the FBI said this morning.

FBI agents are consulting with the U.S. attorney's office as to whether charges should be filed against the youth, but federal charges are unlikely because he is a juvenile, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said.

However, local law-enforcement agencies -- such as police in Lincolnshire, home of the local Adlai E. Stevenson High campus -- are welcome to file their own charges, Rice said.

A New Jersey resident discovered the threat Tuesday on a Web site dedicated to Japanese animation and comic books, authorities said. It didn't specify which of the nation's four Adlai E. Stevenson High Schools was being threatened, officials said.

In addition to Lincolnshire, there is one Adlai E. Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York and two in Michigan.

The person who discovered the threat reported it to the FBI, which sent leads to field offices in Chicago, New York and Michigan, Rice said.

Within hours, the Chicago office's cybercrimes unit traced the message to a home computer in the far Northwest suburbs, Rice said. He declined to identify the town.

Agents interviewed the boy and his parents Tuesday night. The youth admitted making the post and said he didn't know there was a Adlai E. Stevenson High campus in the Chicago area, Rice said.

"He claims it was just a prank," Rice said. "How and why that name was picked, I don't know."

No arrests were made, Rice said.