FBI: Suburban boy placed internet school threat

An Internet post threatening a Columbine-style attack against Stevenson High School was a hoax created by a suburban boy, the FBI said Wednesday.

FBI agents are consulting with the U.S. attorney's office as to whether charges should be filed against the youth, who police said is from the Fox River Grove area. Federal charges are unlikely because of his age, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said.

Local law enforcement -- like police in Lincolnshire, where Stevenson High is located -- can pursue charges, Rice said.

A New Jersey resident on Tuesday discovered the threat on a Web site devoted to Japanese animation and comic books, authorities said.

The message didn't specify which of the nation's four Adlai E. Stevenson High Schools was targeted, officials said. In addition to Lincolnshire, one is in the Bronx, N.Y. and two are in Michigan.

The threat said violence would erupt Wednesday morning -- evidenced by the lighter-than-usual student attendance at the Lincolnshire campus Wednesday morning, Stevenson spokesman Jim Conrey said.

Police presence was boosted as a precaution.

"We are relieved to know that Stevenson was not a target of the threat, that the posting was a hoax and that none of our students were involved," Conrey said.

"At the same time, it is very frustrating that the lives of our parents, students, faculty and staff … have been disrupted by what appears to be a sick joke."

The threat was reported to the FBI, which sent leads to field offices in Chicago, New York and Michigan. Within hours, the Chicago office's cybercrimes unit traced the message to a home computer in the far Northwest suburbs, Rice said.

Agents interviewed the boy and his parents Tuesday night. The youth admitted to the posting, adding he didn't know there was a 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."

Regardless, the post amounted to a terrorist threat, Rice said.

"In the current climate, making threats of any type of a terrorist nature … is not only inappropriate but is also going to bring upon you the full weight of the federal government, the FBI and local law enforcement," Rice said.

A Stevenson student also learned of the threat Tuesday and reported it to local police as the FBI investigation was getting under way, authorities said.

The FBI told school officials the threat wasn't real Tuesday night. That prompted educators to notify parents and staff members via the school's Web site and an automated telephone system that called some 6,000 phones, Conrey said.

Lincolnshire police fielded hundreds of calls from parents Tuesday night, Chief Randy Melvin said.

More than 530 students were absent Wednesday, Conrey said. On a typical day, between 100 and 200 students miss school, he said.

Some teens trickled in as the day progressed, however.

Lincolnshire police will confer with the Lake County state's attorney's office about potential charges, Melvin said.

"This is certainly worthy of disorderly conduct, at a minimum," he said.